Kára
by MissusSlimShady
Summary: After his vacation is cut short, Len finds himself suddenly and accidentally adopted into a ragtag group of criminals that he could never have imagined being involved with. Modern-day Assassins. Rated M for violence and criminal activity. RinxLen.
1. Chapter 1

_Guys I was going to wait a little bit longer to post this and kinda give you guys a break from reading all my shit but I'm way too excited for this and couldn't wait at all._

 _This will be another multi-chapter fic, though not nearly as long as Lynne was. I've been pouring my heart and soul into this fic since I finished Lynne, and I hope you guys love it as much as I do._

 _This fic is rated M for many reasons. Drugs, guns, Black Market stuff, pretty intense violence, cussing, and, of course, assassins :)_

 _Prepare for a wild ride._

 _Without further ado~_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

I should have known visiting my parents would be an awful idea. But, after Grandpa died, I figured they'd loosen up a bit.

They didn't.

I had flown down to Florida for the funeral. And, even though they had called me, mailed me an invitation, and offered to have me stay with them, they still seemed unpleasantly surprised to see me show up at their door.

"Len. You do know it's going to be a Catholic funeral, right?" Mom had said to me over dinner. "Are you… are you sure you want to go?"

It wasn't a question. It was more of a statement. She wasn't asking me if I wanted to go. She was telling me not to.

"Yeah," I had bravely told her. "I still want to go."

There was a reason I had moved all the way to California. Ever since I rejected their idea of a perfect, Christian life, they had all-but sent me into exile. It was stupid of me to think that they would ever get over it.

It was even stupider of me, despite my understanding, to say I still wanted to go to the funeral.

Even my sister looked down on me for it. Only a few years younger than me, homeschooled, and the epitome of a perfect Catholic girl. She was a reflection of my mother. It was almost sickening to watch her grow up in her shadow.

It was after I stated my wishes to honor my grandfather one last time that Dad had lost it. The argument that ensued was probably heard by all the neighbors. And ended with my broken phone.

I sighed in my seat. Staring out the window of the plane, a full two days before I had planned to return home, and missing the funeral. I should have known.

"Can I take your trash, sir?" A flight attendant startled me from my thoughts.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." I pulled the empty soda can from the table in front of me, handing it to her.

"We will be landing in about ten minutes," she informed me politely. "The pilot will call when you fold your table up."

"Okay. Thank you." The two strangers sitting with me both had headphones in and were staring intently at laptops. They were oblivious there was a conversation taking place.

She moved on.

I pushed the table up as soon as she was gone. The first thing I'd have to do when I got home; buy a new phone. And get a new number. One my parents didn't have.

I sighed, watching the city pass below me. It was an unfortunate situation, for sure, but it didn't bother me much. The entire country had separated me from my family for almost five years before this trip, and my life was going smoothly without them. A decent apartment in one of the most expensive cities in the world, a wonderful group of friends, and a decent job straight out of college was all a person could ever ask for. I could confidently say I was much better off than your average twenty-three year old.

"Passengers, please fasten your seatbelts…"

I leaned back, feeling the plane descend into the city.

Only one bag traveled with me, and, once the plane landed, I swiftly yanked it from under the seat, and stood. The only downside of the window seat was the line to get off.

I passed baggage claim with a smile, thankful I didn't have to include myself in the multitude of people standing around the conveyor belt of clothes searching for their owners. Despite myself, I walked with a skip in my step. I was home. And it felt good to be home.

It was hot in Los Angeles, but what else could I expect? Hailing down a taxi was much more difficult than simply calling an Uber, but I managed to do it without much trouble. The traffic was hell, I was already sweating, and I was exhausted from my six-hour flight. And yet I breathed in the ocean air with a smile. Getting a new phone could wait. All I wanted to do was crash on my couch for the rest of the night.

The taxi followed the highway along the boardwalk. The sun was high in the sky. The earliest flight I could catch home didn't leave until six in the morning, so I had spent the night at the airport. Point being, I was ready for a nap. Even though it was noon.

"Right here," I pointed to the driver. The backseat of his car stunk like cigarette smoke and alcohol.

I paid him, then stepped out to the foot of my apartment building. It towered over me like a friendly giant. With my bag in one hand and a grin on my face, I entered the modern building.

The elevator ride to the fifth floor was slow. A song I recognized played in the background. I nodded my head to it.

With a ding, the doors opened, revealing the clean carpeted, fresh smelling hallway to my apartment. I whistled the tune in the elevator as it faded from my sight. There was no sign of life in the entire building thus far; everyone was probably out enjoying the warm weather. If I wasn't so tired, I'd do it myself.

Maybe I should call the guys for drinks, I thought, then frowned once I remembered that I did not have one. It had been less than twenty-four hours, and it was already getting annoying to be without it. I halted in the hallway, debating whether or not to go get a new one.

That taxi is probably gone. But I could just find another one. It wasn't like there was a shortage of them in downtown LA, anyway. But what about my bag?

Yeah, I'd have to drop it off first. I continued down the hall. As I approached the door, I pulled my key out of my pocket. The guys always warned me I'd lose it without a keychain, but it hadn't happened yet. I'll just drop my shit off and walk over to the Verizon store down the block, I decided.

My door was at the end of the hall, right next to the stairs. Grinning at the familiar sight of the door, I slid the key in. And then paused.

"...in sight." A voice sounded from inside.

I shrugged. Must have left the TV on. Dammit, Len. Killing the planet one vacation at a time. I pushed the door open.

And I had definitely not left the TV on.

An opened suitcase sat on my coffee table, spilling out all sorts of unknown gadgets and bullets - Bullets? - longer than my hand across the surface. There were small screws, bottles, rags, a pair of binoculars, and many other unknown items covering it. There was a walkie-talkie on the corner closest to the center of my confusion. Kneeling on the floor of my living room was a girl, dressed in all black, holding a sniper rifle that looked bigger than she was. Its barrel was pointed out of the open window. Her short blonde hair was kept from her face with an array of bobby pins.

Three things happened at the same time. First, the loud honk of a semi-truck sounded from the street below. Second, the girl pulled the trigger of the monstrous gun in front of her, letting out a thunderous bang that shook the walls of my apartment but was barely audible over the horn. Third, as she pulled the trigger, her gaze snapped to me, her ice-blue gaze freezing me in place.

"Perfect timing," a static male voice said from the walkie-talkie.

"Yes!" Another voice, this time female, shouted out. "We've got it! We got her-"

"Wait." A third voice chimed in.

And the whole time, me and the girl just stared at each other. I was too stunned to form words. The bag fell from my hand and landed on the floor with a small thud.

"...Kára." The third voice spoke softly. "You missed."

"What?"

"She fucking missed."

"No, she didn't. No way."

"Kára?" The male voice spoke. "What's wrong?"

"Loki," she said, still staring right at me. Her voice was monotone. The entire rest of her body was motionless. "Can you tell me why the owner of this apartment just walked in and is now staring at me?"

The radio was silent.

"Uh-" I fumbled, trying to think of something to say.

"What?!" The male voice rang out again. "But-but he wasn't supposed to be back until-"

"K. You've stirred up trouble," the third voice called again. "They see you. And they're on their way."

The girl jumped from the window, pulling the gun in and beginning to twist and turn different parts of it, removing them and packing them expertly into the gun case. "How long do I have?"

"...No more than thirty seconds."

She moved more like a machine than a human, packing everything back into the case in under five seconds. Once she was finished, she clipped the radio to the belt of her dark pants and looked up at me. I gulped once I caught sight of the pistol holstered next to it.

"What about this guy?" She asked angrily.

"Kára, I'm sorry-"

"I don't care!" The female voice cried. "Kill him or get the fuck out! You have twenty seconds."

She huffed, staring me down.

"Who the fuck-" I began.

In one motion, she swiped the closed briefcase into her hand, (I would have never guessed an entire sniper rifle was packed in there) and pulled out her pistol with her other hand. She aimed straight at me.

I shut my mouth, holding my hands up.

But she hesitated. "You have three seconds to grab a jacket with a hood before I shoot you," she finally said.

There were several of them hanging on the rack next to me. I snatched one, then sighed as she lowered the gun.

"Put it on," she said, pulling her hood over her head, as well as the extra-long collar of her shirt to cover the lower half of her face. "Follow me, or you die."

"...Kára's feeling extra nice today, it seems," one of the voices - I couldn't tell them apart anymore - said.

"Shut it, Mani." She poked her head out into the hallway.

"Ten seconds."

"Loki. Pull the truck around."

"Are you sure? This thing isn't exactly the best getaway car-"

"We have unexpected baggage," she snarled, looking over her shoulder at me.

"K. Move now. They're in the staircase."

She turned to me. "You. Where's the fire escape." She spoke to me like I was a bug ready to be stepped on.

"D-down the hall." I pointed.

And then I heard several pairs of shuffling in the stairwell next to me.

"Run!" She yelled, suddenly leaping down the hall.

"Fuck, what the fuck-" I muttered to myself, before following her. I left the door open behind me. Should I have closed it? I had no idea what was going on, but my heart was thumping in my chest, a girl with a gun was trying to kill me, and now the bad guys were apparently after us?

I must have fallen asleep in the taxi, I thought to myself. But I kept running. This was a very real dream.

We were almost to the window when I heard the door to the stairwell slam against the wall. "There!" I voice called out.

"Pull your hood up!" The girl yelled. I did as I was told. We reached the window, and she threw her suitcase into the glass, shattering it instantly. Without even checking for the fire escape, she hurdled herself out. The railing shook outside as she landed.

"Loki. West side of the building."

I followed her, very aware that the men behind us were also holding guns. Where did all these people come from? I thought desperately. What is happening?

"Who are you people?" I asked, frantically following her down the stairs.

"Don't ask questions," she scolded. "Not now." The suitcase, completely unscathed from the broken glass, dangled in her hand. That thing had to be heavy. She carried it like it was empty.

The railing suddenly gave an uncomfortable lurch, and we both looked up to see the men jumping on after us.

We were in an alley. And yet, somehow, there was a semi-truck parked on the cement below. Its sides were inches from the white walls of the buildings on either side of it.

There were still two more levels left to the ground, and the truck had to have been seven or eight feet from us. But the girl next to me gave zero shits. I watched in awe as she snapped her gaze to the truck, and then jumped onto the thin metal railing.

"What're you-"

She glanced at me one last time, shaking her head as if disappointed, and then jumped. The impact sent a metallic ringing through the narrow alley. I noticed as she jumped that the back of her tiny jacket was covered in bright reds, yellows, and blues, looking like something out of space. I didn't have long to admire it. She landed with a small stumble, then crawled to the front, where the driver was seated.

She didn't even tell me to follow her. She didn't think I would do it.

The railing continued to shake.

What the fuck is happening, I thought as I mindlessly climbed onto the railing after her.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

I jumped.

Pain shot through my leg as I landed on the metal. "Shit," I muttered, rolling onto my back.

The girl perked her head up at me. "You fucking did it," she said in disbelief.

But I couldn't hear her over the sound of my blood pumping and my heart racing in my ears. Not to mention the strikes of pain I felt in my left leg.

Her gaze shot up to the men, who weren't even bothering to climb down after us and were instead taking aim.

Right at me.

 _Dude. What the fuck._

I threw my head back against the cool metal. It was a really hot day today.

"Yuma, drive!" The girl screamed. I heard shuffling across the metal, and then a hand gripped the back of my collar, yanking my back. My eyes bulged at the sudden feeling of being choked.

And then the gunshots started.

I held my arms over my head instinctively, even though I knew it would be no use against a gun. The girl dragged me across, the truck under us suddenly lurching into motion, and then the surface below me gave away.

I fell into the cabin of the semi unceremoniously. My vision was clouded with pain as I fell on my back, my injured leg slamming into the ground once more. I groaned.

"Who'd you bring?" I heard the same male voice from the radio talking.

"This," the girl said, nudging my shoulder with her foot. "Is our unexpected baggage."

"Rin, I swear, he wasn't supposed to come back until Monday. I swear-"

"Later." She sat in the passenger's seat, the boy, who I noticed had bright pink hair, driving next to her. "Can we get out of here?"

He took a deep breath. The sound of the gunshots was slowly fading into the distance. I stared at the ceiling of the cabin, trying to catch my breath. My hands were clutching onto my injured leg, desperate to stop the pain. They weren't helping.

"We barely fit in here. I don't think we can turn. But I think this alley leads to a street."

"Get us out of here."

The radio on her belt suddenly crackled to life. "Guys? Update?"

She pulled it off her waist, setting it on the huge dashboard. "I'm out. Hel's men after us. But only on foot, I think."

"The chariot is parked and in place. Get out of there. We'll meet you at Extraction A."

"Who are you people?" I wailed, rolling on the floor.

"...You still have him?"

The girl sighed. "I didn't expect him to jump after me. But he actually did it. He's injured, though."

"What are we gonna do with him?" The boy asked.

"I don't know, Yuma. Just drive."

He sighed. "I don't know how I managed to fuck this up. I really don't-"

She held a hand up to silence him. "We'll deal with it later. Just. Drive."

And he did.

I couldn't see out the windows from my place on the floor, but from the array of honks that suddenly sounded, I could tell we had emerged from the alley and were driving down the main road.

"The highway," the girl said.

"I know." We took a sharp turn. I tensed to keep from rolling over on the floor.

And then, suddenly, the girl's face appeared, looking down at me. She kneeled on the floor, her eyes narrowed. "What's your name?"

The pain was becoming too much. I looked down, trying to see if I was bleeding. I couldn't see anything.

"Hey," she snapped her fingers in my face. "Name."

"L-Len," I managed to choke out.

"You have any family, Len?"

The question took me off guard. "Um, yes, but… but not really." I couldn't think of a better explanation.

She cocked her head slightly, as if confused, then returned to her previous stern expression. "Friends?"

"...Yeah."

"A job?"

"Yeah."

"Pets?"

A laugh escaped me. "In that apartment? No. They'd never-"

She stood tall, cutting me off. Her arms folded in front of her. The truck hit a bump, and she swayed slightly, her hair following her every movement. "Len, sorry to tell you this, but you've just had, probably, the unluckiest day of your life."

I didn't know how to respond. My mind was hazy, my leg was throbbing, and I remembered that I hadn't had a good night's sleep in almost two days.

The sight of her standing over me was the last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

 _I promised you that our past villains would get their redemption. Yay for being the good guys!_

 _You guys probably don't care, but I just got a program that will help me with those stupid mistakes I make while I'm writing, too. Get rid of some of those embarrassing typos I tend to make a lot._

 _Ahhhhhh I'm so excited for this. I hope you guys are too._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_

 ** _(Cover Artwork by Uenotsuki on Twitter)_**


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter two! Yay!_

 _I've never really written action scenes before, so I'm sorry if they're a little bland. I'm trying lol_

* * *

 _What a crazy fucking dream_ was the first thought that came to me and I strained my closed eyes against the sudden brightness of my window. Even through my eyelids, the light of the rising sun was blinding.

I turned over, then groaned loudly at a sudden ache in my left leg. Fluttering my eyes opened, I realized I was not in my room. And the light blaring down on me was not the sun.

I was in a room that looked almost like a hospital. Three walls were plain white, with no decoration. Only cabinets full of bottles with pills, liquids, and every odd thing in between. There were also bandages and small metal tools that looked like surgical equipment. I was laying on a bed that looked, and felt, more like an examination table than anything. A blinding white light hovered over me, obstructing my vision even more against the ceiling lights behind it.

"Mornin'!" A girl cheered next to me. I blinked a few more times, her picture becoming clearer as my eyes adjusted to the light of the room. She sat on a stool, leaning onto the table with a friendly smile. Her hair, like the other girl I had seen, was short, though this one was almost orange in color. She wore a white headband. Her eyes were friendly, also unlike the other girl, and green.

"Uh…" I sat up, cringing once again at the pain in my leg. My gaze fluttered down to it, and I felt a blush rise to my face as I realized my jeans were gone, leaving me in my boxers.

"Sorry," she said, amused. "Couldn't really wrap you up with those jeans on."

My left knee was wrapped in gauze. Comparing the sizes of both legs, I could tell it was swollen as hell.

"Where am I?" I asked, looking around the room once more. I discovered a few more cabinets full of medical supplies, along with a confusing machine next to me that I was (thankfully) not hooked up to. The wall across from my bed was made of paneled glass, with a doorless archway serving as the room's exit. Through the glass, I could see a circular room with its main feature being a long, dark table stretching across it. There were three chairs on either side, with one more on each end. Of the eight, four of them were filled. Another girl with hair similar to my nurse was facing away from me, combing her fingers through her ponytail. The guy with pink hair who had driven the semi was sitting next to her. A third person I had never seen before, and the only one in the room not wearing the same dark outfit, was watching along with the people next to her as the blonde girl who'd ambushed me in my apartment spoke to them intently. I could hear her voice, but could not decipher her words.

The girl on the stool sighed. "Look. It's kind of… a big deal that you're here," she explained. "I'm Anon," she chirped.

 _Finally,_ I thought. _A name that makes sense._

"You… you were on the radio," I said, a hand traveling to feel a throbbing spot on my head.

"Yup! I'm the computer girl. And sometimes the nurse."

My eyes fell on the people behind her. Anon swerved on her stool, waving at the four of them. The girl giving her speech looked over, along with the rest of them, and frowned.

And then they all rose, walking towards us.

"Um…" I felt suddenly nervous.

"Don't worry," Anon said. "They won't bite. Unless you, like, bite first." She sounded so cheerful. I couldn't imagine how, or why, she felt the need to talk so happily.

A mixture of confusion and fear ran through me as the others entered the room, every one of them surveying me like an animal they were about to purchase. Only Sniper Girl hung back, crossing her arms and leaning against the archway. All of them wore the same uniforms, except for the tall girl I hadn't seen before.

"About time," the pink-haired guy chuckled. "I thought you were never gonna get up."

"How long have I been-"

"Almost two days," Anon answered for me.

" _What?"_

"I think the pain kept you knocked out." She nodded to my bandaged knee. _Oh yeah. All these strangers are looking at me in my boxers right now. Great._

"Where am I?" I repeated.

They all exchanged glances. Anon sighed. "I think I'll introduce you first." She pointed to each one of them. "This," she began, pointing to the girl who had filed in next to her, "Is Kanon, my sister. That's Yuma, with the pink hair. Next to him is Flower. And in the doorway," she pointed over everyone, despite being a few feet shorter when sitting down. "Is Rin."

 _Rin._ The one who had been trying to kill someone in my apartment when I came home.

"And… why were you guys in my apartment?"

Yuma sighed. "We were… borrowing it."

"We were supposed to be, at least," Rin muttered.

"Look, I said I was sorry-"

"Why'd you come home early?" Kanon asked. I recognized all their voices from the radio except for Flower's, who hadn't spoken yet. I realized with a start that her eyes were bright purple. _Are those contacts?_

"...I mean, I left because it was my Grandpa's funeral-"

"Yeah, yeah," Yuma waved a hand, interrupting me. "We know that. Why did you come home the day of the funeral instead of Monday, like you were supposed to?"

"What? How did you-"

"Just answer the question."

I eyed the five of them suspiciously. Even if they were all acting sketchy as hell, one of them had pulled me out of gunfire, and another had nursed me back to health. _But they're the reason you're in this situation in the first place._ Point is, they seemed nice enough. I guess.

"...I had a fight with my family. They didn't want me to go. So I didn't."

"And why weren't we tracking you?" Rin asked, looking at Yuma accusingly.

"I had the thing in his phone! It should have-"

"Oh," I chuckled. "Yeah. It's broken. Still in Florida. Probably in the dumpster by now."

The entire room let out an exasperated sigh at once.

"Fuck," Kanon said, turning away from us.

Anon frowned. "We were so close-"

"What were you guys… uh, doing in my apartment? Exactly?"

There it was again. That silence. Those exchanged looks.

"Listen here, dude." Rin suddenly stepped forward, pushing Anon's seat out of the way as she leaned onto the table, her hands pressing down against the surface for support. "I'm about to explain all of this to you. And once I do, you're gonna have two options."

"...okay?"

"They aren't really… options," Anon said softly.

"You're two options are as follows. One, you join us. Two, you die."

"Whoa whoa whoa," I said, holding my hands up. "What even-"

"I told you. You just had the unluckiest day of your life. Now, do you want to hear what I'm about to say, or not?"

I didn't really consider dying to be an option. "Yeah. Sure. Go ahead."

Rin stood tall and took a deep breath.

"What you just came home to was an assassination in progress. And, because you walked in when I didn't expect you to, I missed my shot." She shot an annoyed glance at Yuma and continued. "So the target's guards were alerted. Either you came with me, or they would have killed you. Or worse, taken you in for questioning."

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air as she paused. I had a feeling _questioning_ was more like

"Torture, basically. Anyway. You came with us in the truck and knocked yourself out, so we loaded your ass into our getaway car, took you with us to the extraction point in Santa Monica, loaded you onto the plane, and took you here."

Plane? "Where exactly is… here?"

"You're in a bunker in the deep woods of Montana."

I was taken aback by the bluntness of her words.

"This," she motioned to the room behind her. "Is our U.S. base. We have them all over the world. This is probably the one we frequent most often. We," she held out her hands to the people around the room. "-are hired assassins."

"Well," Yuma butted in. "We're a team, containing Rin, the assassin."

She glanced at him, annoyed at his interruption, and continued. "And since you saw me, you had to come with me."

"...Is this some kind of joke?"

Rin put her hands on her hips. "You want me to get my gun back out? Then will you think it's a-"

"Rin," Flower spoke for the first time. Her voice was low. "Save it."

She sighed, closing her mouth.

"But, like, you can't just go on Craigslist and type in 'assassin' and get results! Like, how does that work?"

"We get clients mainly through the dark web," Yuma told me. "And, we have secret hiding spots all around the world for requests that we check every few months. Repeat customers, sometimes people contact friends of our friends - stuff like that. On the Black Market, you'll find anything."

"But-but-" I didn't even know what to ask. "I just… I just don't-"

They stared at me patiently as I worked out my words. All of them except for Rin.

"...Why?"

There was a pause, and then Kanon laughed behind her sister. "Do you know how much money people put down for assassinations?"

Yuma was chuckling, too. "Yeah. How do you think we can afford a place like this? Let alone one in every major country in the world?"

It felt like a dumb question, but still a legitimate once. "...You guys were calling each other different names."

"Well, duh," Anon said with a smile. "Over the radio, we have codenames. In case we're being tapped."

I tried to remember any of the names they had used. "Aren't they-"

"Norse Gods," Flower said with a small smile.

"Why?" I asked again.

"Why not?" She responded.

 _Fair enough._

"And you guys… you guys are a team?"

"Yup!" Anon chirped. "Like I said before, I'm the part-time nurse. And, along with Kanon," she pointed animatedly to the girl behind her. "I watch over the screens when Rin goes on missions. Keep track of the cameras, make sure the target is in place, advising of possible obstacles… you know." She grinned. "The whole deal."

"I'm Intel," Yuma said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "I keep track of possible leads on targets, and all the arrangements surrounding the heist. Also, I can drive just about anything under the sun. _I_ was the one in charge of tracking _you_ so we could use your living room as a vantage point." He glanced at Rin. "And I fucked it up."

Flower scoffed. "Will you quit it, already? Both of you? If anyone fucked it up, it's _him_." She pointed a finger at me. "And how could he have known? Shit happens. Get over it."

"We'll never get a chance like that again," Kanon frowned. "Never."

"You guys… were on a contract?" I asked.

Those glances.

"Not exactly," Anon finally answered.

"A story for another time," Rin snapped. "Anyway. I'm the killer. Simple."

"And while we make all the money, Flower," he pointed a thumb at the white-haired girl. "She spends it all."

"I'm the only one seen in the public," she informed me. "I buy things we need, I meet with potential clients. All the dangerous work."

"Hah," Rin let out an unamused laugh.

"But I never set foot near the actual mission." She concluded.

"So you guys run an assassination company with only five people?"

Yuma chuckled. "We each have our sources. People who help us. But yes. Just the five of us."

I was amazed. All of these people had to be around my age, and yet here they were. Millionaires, no probably _billionaires,_ and yet they remained hidden underground, in the shadows of the entire world. I couldn't believe it.

I really couldn't believe it.

"Look," I said, cringing as I swung my leg over the side of the bed. "This is funny and all, ha-ha, good joke, I bed Kiyo put you up to this. But I really need to get home. I have work-" I tried to stand, and then instantly locked my knee painfully, falling back on the table. No one even moved.

"If you leave," Rin finally said. "You die."

"This isn't fucking funny anymore." I was growing annoyed.

"No, listen. What isn't fucking funny is the fact that either way, according to the rest of the world, you no longer exist," she began harshly. "If you join us, we'll fake your death. Everything about it. Yuma's a professional. Your job, your friends, your family, everyone will realize that you are dead. And if you leave, then we won't have to fucking _fake_ it."

For the first time since I awoke, the thought that they might be telling the truth popped into my head. And I realized, with a pang of terror, that wherever I was, I was at the mercy of these five people, who all seemed more than okay with killing. This was a lawless room, in a lawless bunker, in a lawless forest. And I was alone with… with _trained assassins._

"So make a choice, Len." She stood tall. "Either you're in, or you're dead."

I shook my head. "Even… even if you _are_ telling the truth, why would you want another member? You guys seem to have a pretty solid team-"

"We didn't want one," Rin corrected me. "But we got one. For better or worse."

"But… but what would I _do_?"

No one spoke. These silences were really beginning to annoy me. Finally, Flower shook her head, seeming disgusted by the hesitance of her teammates. "We're down a killer," she informed me.

I was very conscious of Rin flinching at her words.

"So you'd be working with her. And training for it."

"Training? To _kill people?_ "

"Your choice," the girl continued. She was in civilian clothing. She looked so casual, and yet so threatening.

"You in, or you out?" Rin asked.

 _This is real. This is real shit._ Everything about it screamed _prank,_ except for the gunmen who had chased after us. Whoever they were, they wanted us dead. And they almost had me.

Holy shit. I almost fucking _died_.

"Hurry up," Rin said again. "We've already wasted a bunch of resources getting you here and keeping your leg up. If we're gonna kill you, we're gonna do it now."

I scratched at the back of my neck. Did I really have what it takes to kill another human being? I couldn't imagine myself doing it. It's one thing to _talk_ about killing someone, and it's a whole other thing to look them in the eyes through the barrel of a gun, release the trigger, and watch as their body goes limp. Watch as their life flashes and then fades out of their eyes. See the commotion ensue in their death.

Could I do it?

It didn't seem like I had much of a choice.

"...If it's join or die," I said slowly. "I guess I'm in."

There was no reaction from the people around me, except for Yuma. He chuckled. "Sweet. I'm not the only dude anymore."

* * *

 _Yay for character redemption. I actually love this team. Not sure why. But I do._

 _I'm not worrying too much about chapter length for this story, so expect varying lengths. This one was 2500 words. Others are way more._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_Yay for codenames! I love Norse mythology, and there are reasons I picked these specific codenames, but, for future reference, here's a list for you guys._

 _Rin - Kára_

 _Yuma - Loki_

 _Kanon-Sol_

 _Anon-Mani_

 _Flower-Odin_

 _Len- We learn next chapter :)_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

"There are two wings to the base," Rin explained as I limped behind her. We had left the infirmary, where Anon was outfitting the table with a new, clean cloth. "Basically, there's the living side, and the training side."

Branching off of the main room, there were two hallways. One to my left, and one to my right. Between them was a wide staircase which, I assumed, led up to the surface.

"I'm showing you the living side first."

She didn't wait up for me. My leg ached a bit with every step, but at least I could still walk on it. And, thankfully, they had found one of their outfits in my size. To an outsider, I probably looked like I had been there forever. The tight clothes only added to my discomfort. A short sleeved shirt that clung to my form like it was trying to suffocate me, and a matching pair of pants that were equally constricting. _How the fuck does Yuma wear this shit?_

The rest of the base was decorated darker than the infirmary. There were no blinding white walls anymore, just darker, gray ones. The lights still shone brightly through the panels of the ceiling, reflecting off of the metallic floor and walls. Every step echoed through the hallway loudly. There was no way to be stealthy down here. I wondered if they did that on purpose.

The hallway led to a large, rectangular room that doubled as the living room and the kitchen. Stainless steel appliances stood against the wall, with matching marble counters in front of them. It looked like it had never been used before. The counter wrapped around the appliances, creating a bar area. A few tall stools littered the area. The living room, sitting only a few feet away, was made up of a large, L-shaped couch that seemed to call my name. Sleeping on a hard surface for two days was having its effects on my back. The couch looked like one giant black pillow. A coffee table sat in front of it, and a flat-screen hung on the wall. In the last corner of the room, bookshelves that reached from floor to ceiling ran along the wall, with a single reclining chair, matching the couch, in the middle of it. I couldn't help but grin at the small reading area. It looked like the one my Grandpa used to have.

"Here you are," Rin introduced, walking towards the kitchen. "The fridge is always stocked. If it's not, just let Flower know. TV is over there, but you probably won't be using it too often." Two more hallways stretched off of the room. She pointed to the one near the living room. "That's the bathroom and showers. And this-" she walked to the opposite one. It led to a long, narrow room with small cubbies cut into the wall. In each one, there was a small, single bed, and a large chest. The latch would have been lockable if it hadn't been broken off. "We sleep here. This is your bed." She pointed to the last cubby in the room on the left. Looking up, I noticed there were rods on the ceiling, no doubt to hang curtains for more privacy. Not a single bed had curtains hanging in front of it. Every cubby contained some personal items, such as different colored blankets, a stray piece of clothing outside of the chest, or anything else. I couldn't tell which bed belonged to which person, but I had the feeling they'd soon be easy to tell apart. The only bare cubby was mine.

At the end of the room, right next to my bed, a very large and very loud generator was running. _That's gonna be a bitch to sleep next to._

I noticed there were exactly six beds. "Did someone have this room before me?"

Rin pursed her lips, staring down at the empty bed. "Come on." Without answering, she left the room.

The meager look of the room disappointed me. It was definitely a downgrade from my expensive Los Angeles apartment.

"Coming?" Rin asked, annoyed, from the hallway.

"Yeah," I followed her. "Yeah, I'm coming." The more I walked, the more obvious my limp.

She veered back into the hallway leading to the main room, where Kanon and Yuma sat at the table, talking. There were papers spread out along the table's glass surface.

"Hey, Len," Yuma called as we passed.

Rin stopped, her eyes betraying her displeasure at being interrupted.

"What's up?" I said, leaning against one of the chairs to take the weight off my leg.

"You said you got in a fight with your parents, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Did you fight with them a lot?"

This was a pretty personal conversation, coming out of nowhere, and yet all three of them waited patiently, expecting an answer. "Yeah," I finally answered. "Ever since I was a kid, really."

"Did your friends know about it?"

"Yeah."

Yuma and Kanon looked at each other. "Suicide," they said in unison.

"What?"

"We gotta fake your death. And that gives good evidence for a suicide," Kanon explained.

The absurdity of it baffled me. I was never that bothered by my family's rejection. "I would never-"

"It doesn't matter," Yuma waved a hand at me. "They won't question it. We won't have you write a note or anything. They'll be convinced."

 _All of my friends are going to think I killed myself,_ I thought with dismay.

"Plus, it's the easiest to fake. No witnesses needed, just one call to the police station and _boom_. Dead Len."

"Is there anything else you need?" Rin said, her voice ripe with impatience.

Yuma looked down at the official documents in his hands. "Uhh… I don't think so. But don't be surprised if I have to come find you."

"We'll be in the sparring room," she stated flatly. Then she turned towards the other hallway. "Come on."

 _Sparring room_? I asked myself. _I don't like the sound of that._

This wing was identical to the first in its layout. In the place of the kitchen was a huge array of workout machines, treadmills, and weights. I grinned. The gym had been my happy place before, and now, there were no lines. There were even speakers in the corners of the room. In one corner was a dark blue mat. Hanging on the wall above it was a line of wooden poles. They looked like the cue sticks next to the pool table back at Kaito's apartment.

Each time I thought of one of my friends, a pang of sadness shot through me. But I still wasn't entirely convinced of this place's legitimacy. Or maybe I just didn't realize the extent of the situation yet.

"You'll train here," she said, turning to me. I shifted uncomfortably as her eyes scanned me from head to toe. "You have one thing going for you," she said after a pause. "You're not like those other twenty-year-olds who just sit in their parent's basement and play video games all day."

That was probably the closest thing to a compliment I was ever going to get about her. I shrugged. "I like working out."

"Good. You'll be doing a lot of it from now on." She turned away from me, nodding towards the hallway to our right, which mirrored the cubbies on the other side of the base. This one was separated by another glass wall. On the other side, Flower kneeled on the ground, a gun similar to the one Rin had been using in her hands, shooting down the range with her back to us. She wore giant headphones over her ears.

"There's the range," she told me. Flower was completely oblivious to our presence. With every shot, a dull _thud_ rang through the room. I knew guns were supposed to be loud, but hers sounded like someone gently tapping their hand against the wall. "It's soundproof," she said, reading my mind. "Down there," she pointed to the opposite side of the room. "Is the armory. All our guns, armor, gear, clothes. That's all down there."

The base was perfectly symmetrical and simple enough to not get lost in. "This place must have been… expensive," I thought, looking around the room.

She huffed. Her attempt at a laugh, I guess. "The bunker itself is a walk in the park. The hard part was building it, hooking it up with generators and running water, and still managing to keep it off the grid. Almost everything we do is nothing price-wise, except for the secrecy. Keeping the right people quiet can double the price, sometimes."

"You're never worried that anyone is gonna, like, run their mouth to the cops or anything?"

"Of course we are," she responded, walking towards the mat. "That's why we have emergency escapes. Routes to take. Rendezvous points. But you'll learn all that with Yuma. For now," she plucked two of the wooden poles from the wall and threw one at me. Not expecting it, I reached aimlessly for it, only for it to slip from my fingers and rattle against the ground.

"Psh," was Rin's response.

"Hey," I grumbled. "I'm injured."

"A poor excuse," she responded, standing confidently across the mat from me. "The person trying to kill you doesn't matter if you're injured or not." She lowered the wooden stick, parting her feet, preparing to strike. "Now, defend yourself."

I picked up the stick. "What? I don't know how to-"

Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, she darted from her spot, the pole balanced in her right hand, and swung it expertly at me, dislodging my own weapon from my hands and striking me in the side.

She flew past me in an instant, and I clutched at my side as the pole clattered against the mat once more.

"Um, _Ow,_ " I complained as she ground to a halt behind me. The poles were thin enough not to break any bones, but I was sure that was going to leave a bruise.

She let out another amused huff. "Dead."

"I don't know what I'm doing! How do you expect me to-"

"You want me to sit you down and pull out a little picture book filled with parries and blocks? The best way for you to learn is to _do,_ " she explained as she took her spot at the mat once more.

I picked the pole up once more. "Why do we even have to _know_ this? We're not in the middle ages anymore. Isn't this why you have guns?"

"And what about when you _don't_ have your gun? What happens when you run out of ammo? Or when it jams? Or when you're trying to be quiet? What happens then?"

I frowned, holding the pole tightly in my hands this time. "Wouldn't you just be, like, fist-fighting at that point-"

She jumped forward once again, cutting me off. I was a bit more prepared this time, sloppily angling my weapon to block her first attempt at dislodging the pole from my grip. The wood met with a loud _crack_ that echoed through the room. Focusing only on dodging, and no striking, I released the wood in one hand, swinging it down to block the second attempt at my bruised side. It worked, but she spun around, swinging the pole with her, rapping me in the opposite side.

 _Now two bruises._

"You learn quick, too," she said, resting the pole on her shoulder as mine clattered against the ground for the third time. "Are you left-handed?"

I nodded.

Her eyes traveled down to my feet. "Are they glued there? Move."

I picked it up again.

She took her place once more. "Again." She paused, waiting. I felt myself tense, waiting for her unexpected strike.

And then it came.

"Enough," she finally said as my weapon was thrown out of my hands once more. I was drenched in sweat, my knee was hurting like a bitch, and my entire body ached from our match. Nearly every fight ended with my weapon on the ground, and I had come to loathe the sound of the wood falling against the soft mat. A few good blocks had come from our fight, but I hadn't even come close to retaliating any of Rin's strikes.

I was still trying to catch my breath when she picked up my pole, setting them both on the wall. I didn't know how long it had been. There were no windows in this place, and I found it suddenly disorienting now knowing whether the sun was up or down, whether it was breakfast or dinner, whether it was noon or midnight. A single clock sat above the hallway back to the main room. It told me it was five o'clock. AM or PM, I had no way of knowing.

"Go shower, and then meet Yuma in the main room." She stepped off the mat without another word and exited the room.

I looked over my shoulder to find the range empty. Flower must have snuck past us during the fight. The room was empty.

A frustrated sigh escaped me, my heart pounding in my chest and my entire body on fire. _What the fuck am I doing here?_ I asked myself. _What the fuck is this place?_

In my misery, a shower did sound pretty nice. I willed my legs to move, wincing at my knee once more, and limped heavily out of the room.

Yuma and Kanon were still sitting together at the table. Beyond them, I could see Rin talking with Anon in the infirmary. Flower was nowhere to be found.

When he saw me, Yuma grinned. "She got you good, huh new kid?"

I grumbled my response, limping shamefully across the room, and entering the living area. There was Flower, sitting silently in the recliner chair of the office area, a book in her lap. She paid no attention to me as I entered the room and slowly made my way to the bathroom.

The showers were nothing but stalls. I was surprised to find that everyone shared a single bathroom, with the toilets being separated by stalls as well. Towels hung on the walls, an array of sinks sat against the wall, each with a mirror over them. One thing I was quickly learning, there was very little privacy here. Someone had already dropped off a clean outfit for me. The tight clothing sat on the edge of one of the sinks. _Where do I put my dirty clothes?_ I looked over my shoulder to find a laundry basket near the door. Despite it being a glorified community shower, the room was surprisingly clean. _I'm probably going to be scrubbing these toilets at some point,_ I thought with dismay.

I wanted to stay in that shower for the rest of my life, but I was more than a little afraid of Rin coming in to yell at me, so I hurried back into the clean clothes, tossing my old, awful smelling outfit in the bin. These were just as tight and uncomfortable as the other ones.

Walking through the living room, I found Flower exactly where I left her. I almost wanted to attempt conversation with her but found myself too shy to say anything. It was a weird, unfamiliar feeling. Talking with people had been no problem for me before. _In my old life,_ I added remorsefully. But here, I felt my position so inferior to that of everyone else's and had no desire to intrude on anything I wasn't supposed to. Plus, out of all of them, she seemed the most introverted.

 _It'd be rude to interrupt her reading, anyway,_ I reasoned, walking past her. If she was aware of my presence, she made no hint of it.

" _There_ he is," Yuma called when I came in the room. The girls were gone.

"Here I am," I muttered, pulling out the chair across from him. I glanced into the infirmary. It was empty.

"How'd it go?" He asked, a smug smile on his face.

"Psh. Do you have to ask?"

He laughed. "She kicked your ass."

"Yeah, _I know._ "

He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head. "Don't worry," he joked. "I won't kick your ass _as_ hard."

"I thought we were just going over papers and shit," I said. My mood had officially soured for the night.

"Oh no," he waved a finger at me. "First, we have to go through your first test. A test of pride. A test of strength. A test of wits."

 _Oh God._ "What test?" I asked hesitantly. The last thing I wanted to do was add even more bruises to my new collection.

He sat tall in his chair. "A test as old as man itself." To my surprise, he lowered his elbow on the table. "Arm wrestle me, new kid."

It was with surprise that I realized he was trying to cheer me up. Despite the unending pain and soreness racking through my entire body, I smiled, mirroring my opponent's movement and grabbing his hand.

"Let's see if you're any better at this than you are at fighting, Mr. Muscle," Yuma joked. "Three, two, one-"

We both strained against the sudden tension. Honestly, I did not expect him to be this _strong_. Compared to me, he seemed almost scrawny. But our fists remained centered in the table, wavering slightly from left to the right in our battle.

"Curl your wrist and you forfeit, you dick," he laughed, his voice strained. I straightened my wrist and continued to push against his hand.

"What the _fuck_ are you two doing?" Rin's voice sounded from the hallway leading to the weight room. My hand wavered a bit, and Yuma got some distance on me, but I recovered.

"Gotta… see… who's… stronger..." Yuma choked out, still grinning.

A few chuckles escaped me. I gained some distance on him. My shoulder was starting to ache.

"Great," Kanon spoke next to Rin. I couldn't see them in my concentration, but their voices were enough to tell me that they weren't nearly as amused as we were. "Another dude to challenge Yuma's masculinity," she told Rin sarcastically.

"It's a test of pride," I repeated Yuma's words from earlier quickly, not wanting to draw too much attention away from our ongoing battle. " _Pride._ "

Yuma took in a deep breath, suddenly forcing my hand down onto the table.

"Dammit!" I cursed, leaning away from the table in defeat.

"I _still_ got it," he grinned wildly.

Rin appeared behind the boy. "Can you two get back to what's important, now?"

Yuma held up a hand to her. "You girls just don't understand. I have just declared my dominance in this lion pack-"

" _Yuma,_ " she warned.

"Fine, fine. We'll get to work."

"Thank you." She walked through the room, entering the living room with Anon and Kanon behind her. I couldn't help but notice the small, amused grin shared between Yuma and Kanon as she passed.

"Okay," Yuma said, gathering some papers from the table once the girls left the room. "We're just gonna start by going over the exits."

I chuckled. "Like a flight attendant?"

"A flight attendant that just beat you at the most important contest known to man. Pay attention."

It felt good having at least one person who seemed to enjoy my company. A friendly face.

He explained the main exit, confirming my earlier suspicion, which stood at the top of the staircase behind me. He also explained the emergency exit hidden at the end of the gun range, a small winding staircase that led to a single tunnel leading away from the base in case of an attack. There was another exit hidden in the bedrooms leading to the same tunnel. He explained the alarms, the group's rendezvous points, and a bunch of other small things that could someday save my life.

"That's a lot to remember," I sighed, running my hands through my damp hair.

"You need to," he warned me gently. "This stuff is important. You need to have it ingrained in your mind at all times."

"Why are you telling me, like, all this top-secret stuff? I've been here for less than a day." I found it surprising they trusted me so easily.

Yuma sighed. "Well, you said you were in. And, to be completely honest, you're basically our bitch until we decide that you're trained enough to do your own contracts. If you try to leave without us, attempt to run away during a heist, or anything like that, we'll just have to kill you."

He said it so casually.

"Anyway, the armory is probably the most important part of the base-"

And then he just moved on like he didn't threaten my life a second earlier.

I didn't ask again.

Just when I felt like my head was going to explode from all the new information, Flower appeared in the doorway. "Lights out," was all she said, before turning back to the living room.

Yuma began gathering the papers. "Guess that's all for today."

"What time is it?"

He wore a watch on his wrist, but he didn't even look at it. "Lights out is at nine o'clock every night."

"It's weird having no windows," I told him as I began to help him gather the papers back into their folders.

"You get used to it. Plus, it's kinda nice being able to go to bed whenever you want." He smirked. "Well, except for you. That generator _sucks_."

My shoulders slumped at the thought of having to sleep next to that thing. "There's no way I'm getting any sleep with it running all night."

Yuma scooped up the last of the papers. "Oh, it won't be running. Rin has the bed next to yours, and she can't sleep with it on either, so she turned it off every night." He motioned to the lights above us. "Hence, 'Lights Out'."

"So if we aren't in bed by nine, we'll be blindly feeling our way to bed?" I reasoned, trying to imagine navigating this place with no lights.

"Exactly." He grinned again. I don't know why he found that amusing. With the folders in his arms, he started towards the living area. I followed him.

"Is she, like, the leader here?" I asked.

He chuckled. "No, not really. We're a team, not a democracy. Sometimes one person might take the head of a mission or two, but no one tells _me_ what to do."

I was surprised by his answer, given the way Rim seemed to emanate authority.

We entered the sleeping area, only to find all the girls already spread out in their respective areas. Flower was the first bed on the right, Yuma took the one to her left. Past them, Anon was on the left, Kanon was on the right. Rin sat cross-legged on her bed with a book in her hands. They were all changed into pajamas that made them look like normal people.

Her gaze rose to me, and she scoffed. "You have five minutes to change in the bathroom before I turn the generator off. There are sweats on your bed."

I grabbed them, jogging out of the room. Being trapped in endless darkness until morning did not seem a pleasant thought to me.

When I came back, everyone was engaged in some sort of conversation that ceased the second I entered the room. I awkwardly stumbled to my bed, feeling the uncomfortable stares of five pairs of eyes as I crossed the room.

"How was your first day?" Anon chirped, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Painful."

Rin smirked from her bed but said nothing.

"Heh," Yuma chuckled from his bed. "You're gonna have _lots_ of fun here."

I sat on the bed, pulling at the perfectly-folded sheets. Exhaustion had been sweeping over me all day, but now it was unbearable.

"Everyone in?" Rin asked, reaching for the generator. She could reach the off switch from her bed.  
"Yup!" Yuma called.

"I'm good." Flower said softly.

"We're here," Anon and Kanon called.

Rin glanced at me as I pulled the thin sheets over myself. "Len?"

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, I'm good."

"You don't have to, like, pee or anything? You're not gonna be able to leave your bed until morning. There are no other lights down here."

"Yeah," I repeated. "I'm fine."

"Okay." She flipped a switch, and the generator whirled one final time before silencing. The room plunged into darkness so thick, I couldn't tell when my eyes were open and when they were closed.

 _What am I doing here?_ I asked myself once again. _What is this place? When are they going to admit that this is just some stupid, elaborate joke?_

I should have just gone straight to the Verizon store. By the time I got back to my apartment, their little assassination attempt would be long over, Rin would be long gone, and I'd be sleeping comfortably in my apartment without any scars or bruises. My biggest worry in the world would be getting up in time for work the next day. I would be spending my days living my life, the life I had been pretty pleased with, pretty content with. And now it was all gone.

I felt a rush of homesickness and suppressed a sigh. The room was dead silent, except for Yuma's soft snores across the room. The sudden urge to cry rose up in me.

 _No fucking way,_ I told myself. _Don't you dare._ The last thing I wanted was for smug Rin to hear that the pain from the bruises she had inflicted on me, my bandaged knee that I received from jumping after her, and the world she had quite literally pulled me into, had made me cry. Instead, I tried to focus on the room around me.

I wasn't afraid of the dark, or anything, but being completely unaware of your surroundings was more than a little unnerving, and it took me a few extra minutes before I finally fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

 _No announcements for today!_

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	4. Chapter 4

"Your feet are too slow. Again."

"Don't let them distract you. In a fight, you have one focus. Your opponent."

"Dead."

"Are you even trying?"

"Too slow."

Rin took her place at the edge of the mat once more, feeling especially talkative today. I, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to lay down next to a bag of chips on the couch, and finally catch up on some of my shows.

The frustration had boiled in me to the point where I wasn't trying to hit her because I was training. I was trying to hit her because she was pissing me off. And every time she managed to disarm me of my weapon, the wood clattering against the ground with that god-awful, echoing _clatter_ , my anger only grew.

I picked it up off the floor, for the millionth time that morning, and readied myself.

She paused and dashed.

The rest of my training wasn't so bad. Learning all the technicalities of Yuma's intel, Anon taught me basic first aid, Kanon showed me how to manage my gear and repair it if needed. But it seemed a lot worse when every day began with the infuriating task of sparring with Rin on that damn mat.

I could at least pride myself in the fact that it took her a lot longer to defeat me, now. On my first day, she had thrown the pole out of my hands in a matter of seconds. Now, our matches could last up to five minutes. Five minutes of me on the losing end, for sure. But five minutes nonetheless.

Her fighting style had grown familiar to me. Constantly dashing around me, her dodges a blur in my peripheral vision. I had to spin around nonstop just to keep my eyes on her.  
I pivoted on my left foot as she dashed behind me, swinging her weapon for my side once more. It was an easy block. She spun elegantly on her heel, aiming for my other side, which I blocked again. Both hands were on the stick as I yanked our clashing swords up into the air, trying to pull hers from her hands. Instead, she pulled away from me, jabbing straight at my ribs and sweeping upwards between my hands, throwing the stick into the air.

It landed on the ground with that deafening _clatter_.

"God dammit!" I cursed.

"You left your chest exposed. Dumb move."

"This is fucking stupid," I muttered, shaking from a mixture of muscle strain and anger.

She held her pole in one hand, resting the bottom end against the ground. "You need to learn it."

"I'm not learning anything! I'm just getting beat up and bruised. How is injuring me going to help me learn?"

She stared at me, blankly. "You're getting angry."

"Yeah, no shit."

"Anger clouds your judgment. Makes you do stupid things."

I stared at my discarded weapon on the floor, unwilling to pick it back up.

She waited for me to say something. When I didn't, she sighed. "We're done for today."

I huffed. "Finally."

I went to pick up the stick, but she yanked it away from me first. I shot her a glare and then looked back towards the gym to find Flower sitting on one of the benches near the weights, watching us. A flush of embarrassment ran through me. There were now two witnesses to my little temper tantrum.

"You're going with her," Rin told me as she set the sparring poles back onto the wall. "Shower later."

I felt disgusting and wanted to shower _now_ , but I didn't argue. I turned away from her, happy to feel my feet on solid ground, and walked over to Flower as Rin exited towards the living quarters.

"Quite the fight," Flower said, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not really a fight."

"No, really. I'm serious. That was pretty sick."

I furrowed my brow. "I can't beat her."

"Yeah, but after only a week here, you're already better than the rest of us." She stood. "Better than me, at least."

"What?"

"Rin's the only one who really does that stuff. None of us ever worry about the hand-to-hand stuff. Except you, now." She started towards the armory.

It was the first time I had ever really talked to Flower outside of the occasional nods and greetings. She was a little intimidating to me, not gonna lie.

"It's just… it's so frustrating. I can't win. She tells me what I do wrong, and then when I try to fix it, I do something else wrong, and we just get into this cycle of… my ass getting kicked."

To my astonishment, she laughed. "She's trying to help you find your style, probably."

"My style?"

"Your fighting style." We entered the armory, and our conversation paused.

I had only glanced into the armory, never before seeing it in its fullness. A wooden cabinet sat against every wall, each with a shelf level with the ground and a shelf above it. With four cabinets against each wall, two shelves per cabinet, and an average of seven different guns on each shelf, there were enough in here for a small army. A worktable littered the middle of the room with tools thrown haphazardly across it. On top of each cabinet were stacks of gun cases, some ranging from the size of Rin's suitcase, to longer than the cabinet itself. Between the cases, different colored clothing was folded neatly on top of each other. _Armor,_ I thought. Some were thinner than an average t-shirt, some vests were thicker than a lifejacket. Organized around the room were shoes, pants, vests, jackets, face masks, and the like.

"Damn," I said.

"You ever shot a gun before?" Flower asked, completely unaffected by the grand display of the room.

I shook my head.

"You ever _seen_ a gun before?"

"... I mean, on TV and stuff."

She sighed, walking straight for a cabinet on the right. Some of the less-scary looking guns sat there. Plucking one off the wall, she spoke. "You're gonna need to know everything there is to know about these things. You can't beat everyone to death with a wooden pole."

I was still annoyed from my sparring, but I chuckled in response.

"There are, basically, three kinds of guns you'll hear about," she began, setting the simple-looking long gun on the table in front of us. She was careful to keep the barrel pointed to the ceiling, and then away from us.

 _Is that thing loaded?_ I wondered.

"Your three types are shotguns, rifles, and handguns. This is a rifle."

"What's the difference?"

She sighed again. I was completely clueless about these things, and it obviously displeased her. But if she was annoyed, her expression did not show it. "There are lots. Rifle ammo is measured by the caliber, and shotgun ammo is measured by the gauge. Rifles shoot a single bullet, while shotguns shoot a bunch of smaller pellets in a spread. Unless you have a slug, which we get into. But anyway," she picked up the gun once more, pulling back a small level on the side. "We don't use shotguns here. We need to be accurate, quiet, and a mobile. A shotgun is none of those things. There are a few here, but they haven't been used in a long time. You just need to worry about the rifles and the handguns for now."

I looked over the weapon in her hand curiously. The main body was a dark wood, accented by a black scope on top, and black hardware, including the trigger, the bolt Flower had pulled back, and the barrel.

"I'm starting you on something easy," she told me. "This is a .22 rifle. It doesn't kick, so it doesn't hurt, and it's quiet. See how, when I pull the bolt back, you can see into the chamber?"

I leaned forward, trying to see what she was talking about. "...I think so."

"That's where the bullet goes before you shoot it." Setting the gun down once more, she reached under the table, emerging a few seconds later with a small green and yellow box in one hand. "Come on," she called, picking up the rifle in the other hand. She leaned it over her shoulder. The barrel pointed straight into the ceiling.

"Rule number one," she said firmly. "Treat every gun like it's loaded. If I _ever_ catch you pointing a gun at me, loaded or unloaded, there will be hell to pay."

"Got it, boss."

She cast me an amused look over her shoulder as we crossed the gym, and opened the door into the range. It was nothing but a long hallway with a seat at one end, and a paper target at the other. She set her items down on the floor. "Now, we need to find your dominant eye. When you're looking through the scope, you'll naturally have one eye that is more comfortable than the other." She faced down range. "Look at the target, and then put your hands like this."

She rose her hands in front of her, joining her pointer fingers and her thumbs together to form a triangle. I did the same.

"Now, look at the target through your fingers, and slowly bring your hand back to your face."

I did as she told, feeling a bit silly at the action. But, as I naturally drew my hands towards my left eye, I figured out what she was talking about. Trying to bring my hands to my other eye felt odd and uncomfortable.

"Damn," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "You're left-handed, aren't you?"

I nodded, dropping my hands to my sides.

"Well, that just makes things a bit harder for you. I've never worked with someone left-handed before, and we have no leftie guns."

"Does it matter?" I asked. Learning about these things was oddly interesting to me. I'd never took myself to be a gun-guy.

She thought this over for a second. "Yes and no. You can shoot a right-handed gun if you're a leftie, but you'll have to drop your stance every time you pull the bolt back-"

The words didn't mean much to me, but I nodded anyway.

"And the brass is going to be flying in your face. You'll have to wear glasses when you shoot."

"Brass?"

"I'll explain it all. Here-"

And thus began the first shooting session of my life. She shot first, teaching me how to load the bullets into the magazine, how to insert it properly into the gun. She explained to me that every time I shot, I would need to pull the bolt back to allow the next bullet into the chamber. I watched her intently. Even though it was a "baby gun," as she described it, it could easily kill someone if need be.

"Is this what I'll use when we go out?"

She was lying prone on her stomach, the gun pulled firmly into her shoulder. "Hah! Oh no. This thing is way too little for missions. You've got a range of _maybe_ a hundred yards on a good day. And this thing won't kill anyone at that distance. Hurt them, yes, but kill them? Definitely not."

And then it was my turn. She plucked a pair of clear glasses off of the wall. Next to them were multiple pairs of brightly colored headphones. I remembered seeing her wear those before. "We don't need those?" I asked her, pointing to them.

"Usually, I'll always make you wear them. But the .22 is so quiet, we'll be fine without it." She handed me the glasses. They looked like sunglasses, only with clear lenses. "Put these on, and lay flat on your stomach like I was."

I did as she told, and she carefully handed me the gun. "Remember," she warned. "Downrange. Or else."

"I'll be careful," I promised, more than a little nervous myself. The gun wasn't too heavy, but after a while of shooting, I imagined it would be tiring.

"Now tuck it into your shoulder. It doesn't kick hard, but if you don't have it held firmly against your shoulder, it'll hurt a lot more."

I did as she told, holding the back of the gun with my left hand, pulling it into my left shoulder. I realized what she was talking about with the bolt. When she shot, she was able to pull the bolt back with her back hand. But I was going to have to pull it with my front hand, which would throw my aim off. Also, I had watched the shells eject out of the left side of the gun. They would fly right in front of my face. And Flower warned me that they were burning hot.

"Pull the bolt back, and aim for the chest."

"Wouldn't I aim for the head?" I asked, peering through the scope.

"Usually, yes. But you've never shot before, and you need to get used to the feel of it. So aim for the chest. It'll be easier to see where you hit."

I tried to steady the scope, which was shaking a bit in my nervous hands, and tried to remember everything she had told me. Make sure the safety is off, bolt is pushed forward all the way, pull the trigger slowly…

I pulled the trigger, feeling the gun recoil back into my shoulder, and a _bang_ rang out through the range. It wasn't deafening, or anything, but it was louder than I expected. The brass flew out in front of my eyes, landing on the ground softly.

"You flinched," Flower observed. "But that's pretty normal for beginners. Not so bad, right?"

"No," I agreed. "It's not that bad."

"Keep going."

I shot a few more times, emptying the gun into the target across the room.

"Awesome," Flower said when I was done. "Put it down, make sure the barrel isn't facing us, and let's see how you did."

Doing as she was told, I followed her down the hall.

The target was a dark outline of a person. When Flower had shot, she had aimed for the head, and there were a few tightly packed holes in the paper right in the center. I never wanted to be on the other end of her gun, for sure. Mine, however, were spread across the torso of the target. No accuracy whatsoever.

I frowned.

When she noticed, she punched my shoulder playfully. "Don't be mad about it. You hit the target with almost every shot. That's better than most."

I shrugged, still a bit disappointed.

"We can't all be Annie Oakley on our first try," she reassured me. "Come on. Let's keep practicing."

Of all the training, shooting was probably the most entertaining. The more we did it, the more I felt my shoulder aching, but the improvement was worth it. Not to mention Flower was way nicer than I had expected her to be. After talking with her a while, I realized she acted like a slightly more mature version of Yuma.

When we left the range, I was stunned to find that we had killed three hours already. My sour mood from Rin's sparring was completely gone, and, despite the soreness of my shooting shoulder, I felt great.

We entered the armory together.

"Tomorrow, we'll try something a bit bigger," Flower said as she pulled the bolt back one more time, confirming it was unloaded, and placing it back on its shelf. The ammo box she had brought with us was empty. She tossed it in the trashcan on our way out.

Kanon was entering the gym just as we were leaving it.  
"Just in time," she said, greeting us. "I've got your gear ready, Len. Let's go check it out."

Flower nodded silently in agreement, handing me off to my next teacher. She headed back into the armory as we left.

Yuma, Anon, and Rin sat in the chairs around the main table. Rin stared blankly at the wall, clearly deep in thought, while Anon and Yuma both peered at a laptop between them. A small duffle bag sat, opened, at the end opposite the three of them.

"You wouldn't be caught dead without these things," Kanon said, digging into the bag. "Learn what's in here. Memorize the list. I promise you'll need it. If you're ever missing anything, find it before you leave."

With her standing over my shoulder, I rummaged through the bag. There was a large first aid box with a tourniquet inside (which I only recognized from Anon's teachings); a flip-phone in a plastic bag; a small box which, upon closer inspection, contained a pistol with a box of ammo; a foldable knife; duct tape; zip ties; a flashlight; and a wrap of parachute cord. There was also a wallet with an ID in it. The picture was of me, but the information was definitely not. At the bottom, I caught sight of another plastic bag filled with neatly tied cash. Pulling it out, my eyes widened.  
"How much money is this?" I asked.

Kanon chuckled. "Enough."

It was a stack of hundred dollar bills. It was hard for me to imagine the true amount of money these people must have. _How much money is a life worth?_ The only answer I could come up with: a lot.

"Every time you use the phone," Kanon explained as I packed the money back into the bag and continued my search. "We need to get you a new one. Numbers are traceable. That's why it's a flip phone, and not an iPhone ten, or whatever they're on." She picked up the baggie. "This thing is the least likely out of all those smartphones to be tracked. Use it only when you need to."

Next, I pulled out a small, pen-like object. "What's this?" I asked.

She grabbed it from me, and, after pressing a button on the side, held it out as it swiftly extended into a baton.

I frowned just at the sight of it. _There's my fighting stick,_ I thought angrily. From across the table, I swore I saw Rin smirk.

Kanon pushed the baton back into its original position. "In case you need it," she said, handing it back to me. "Fits in your pocket, too."

The final thing I pulled out of the bag was a radio, just like the one Rin had used the day I met her.

"Try to use this, when you can," Kanon said. "Instead of the phone. Your codename is on the side."

Turning the radio over in my hand, I glanced at the name scratched into the side. "Helgi?" I read aloud.

I must have done something wrong, because the entire room, stiffened at the name. Rin's eyes tore from the wall, brought back to life from her deep thought, and glared at Kanon and I. Yuma and Anon's conversation ceased, each avoiding their eyes from the showdown across the table. They lowered their heads into the laptop.

Kanon merely sighed, as if annoyed at the ripple the name had caused.

"You gave him Helgi's radio," Rin said flatly.

"Rin, I don't want to scratch another one of my nice ones up."

"Then scratch the name out and give him a new one." She spoke slowly. It wasn't hard to tell that underneath her steady voice, she was furious.

"We all know the name. Why go through the trouble of learning a new one?" Kanon grabbed the radio from my hands, showing Rin the name on the side. "He's Helgi, now. Not a big deal."

" _No,_ " she answered.

I stood there awkwardly, completely clueless to the situation.

Silence hung in the air as the girls glared at each other. Finally, Anon's gentle voice spoke up.

"...It's been, like, years, Rin," she said softly. "It's not a big deal-"

Instead of responding, Rin slammed her hands on the table. The sound echoed through the room as she stood, and stomped away towards the living room.

We stood in silence, watching her leave.

"Did I…?" The question hung in the air.

"No," Kanon answered, turning her attention back to my bag. "You did nothing wrong."

I watched as she packed the things back into the bag. "Can… can I ask who-" I cut myself off. Still feeling very much like an outsider, it was uncomfortable to ask for any details. So I stopped myself.

But it was too late. "Helgi was the guy here before you," Yuma said. "Name was Gumo."

I wanted to ask what happened, but I decided against it.

"You don't need to use the duffle bag," Kanon began, trying to leave the tense conversation behind. "You can carry all this stuff in a backpack, in a suitcase, hell, in your pockets if you can fit it all. Just make sure you have it at all times. Now, grab that radio. This knob is the volume, keep it low when you're on a mission unless you _know_ you're completely alone. Here are the channels. Never touch this. You're already on the right channel. But if you ever accidentally change it, it's kind of a bitch to get back to the normal one. Here's what you do…"

* * *

 _This team is so badass I love all of them._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	5. Chapter 5

Another few days had passed, and the only thing keeping me sane during these _fucking_ sparring sessions was knowing that shooting would come next.

Rin didn't even comment on my flaws anymore, probably expecting me to somehow figure them out myself. Our individual fights had increased from an average of five minutes to almost eight; I kept track, looking over my shoulder at the clock between each one. Each one that I _still_ lost.

I leaned back, dodging a swift strike aimed towards my face, and countered with a swing towards her knee. She easily deflected it. Throwing the end of her staff into the air, and dragging mine with it, she exposed my left side and swung for it. But I was ready. It was a maneuver of hers I had seen almost every fight and was almost always my downfall. But this time I lowered my left hand, catching her just in time. With a spin, I jabbed at her exposed stomach. She leaped out of the way with the speed of a darting rabbit.

Whenever I thought I had finally found an upper hand on her, she threw out some crazy move I had never seen before. I had only just begun to successfully react to her new strikes with my improvised counters to some success. I had also become familiar with her expressions, knowing exactly where she was going to strike from her analytical eyes. She had the habit of darting her eyes towards her path just before she followed them, making it just a bit easier to judge her movements and respond accordingly.

 _She's getting tired,_ I realized with a burst of confidence. With a stab at her ribs, she deflected with a sweep of her pole, sidestepping with it and, to my pleasure, stumbling along the way. Her movements were growing slow and clumsy, and I finally felt a victory coming on. Finally.

My confidence convinced me to attack more furiously. One swipe towards her leg, she dodged backwards. A stab towards my ribs, I parried. Rising my weapon over my head, I brought it down towards her shoulder. She shifted the pole into one hand, and I watched, stunned, as she deflected the shot with the pole, and used her free hand to slap her palm into my wrist. Pain shot up my arm, and I dropped the pole. My other hand instinctively grabbing at my throbbing wrist.

"Dead."

 _Just when my fucking knee heals, too._

It wasn't broken, I could tell that much. If anything, it was just a minor sprain. Nothing a little shooting wouldn't fix.

But the increasing number of losses I had suffered only ticked up one more, and I was furious at losing my only chance. "You didn't tell me we were allowed to-"

"Anything goes in hand-to-hand combat," she said, resting the staff on her shoulder. She was breathing heavily, too. "Gotta learn it all."

 _Mother fucker._ My wrist didn't hurt nearly as bad as my pride. It was like I couldn't win, no matter what. It wasn't fair. I was unwillingly dragged into this stupid place to get beat up and thrown around like a rag doll. To be scolded and disciplined like a child. To be looked down on and teased. And I didn't even _want_ to be here.

I didn't reach for the pole on the ground, instead trying to keep myself from erupting into a rage. I had never felt like this before. Never before had I considered myself the hot-headed type, but I felt like I was about to explode.

And somehow, I kept it under control. Even under Rin's condescending glare across the mat.

She seemed to sense that something was wrong. No words left her as she gently set her pole back against the wall, and walked past me out of the room.

"You were close," Flower called behind me. Sometimes she showed up early enough to watch our sparring. Sometimes not. Today was the former.

I didn't respond. Instead, I let go of my wrist, moved my hand a bit to judge the pain, and, after setting my pole on the wall next to Rin's, walked off towards the armory. Flower followed me.

As always, I entered her lessons frustrated. And, as always, it felt good to shoot that frustration into a faceless silhouette. I had moved up to the big guns, literally. They kicked much harder, they shot much farther, and even with ear protection, I left the range daily with a ringing noise to follow.

An hour in, we hadn't spoken a word to each other. Usually, Flower was full of encouraging words to improve my mood. Today seemed different.

I was able to reload, shoot, reload, shoot without any help from her now. Se had barely begun to teach me how to disassemble and reassemble the weapons, which wasn't nearly as fun as shooting them.

I emptied another mag and reached for the next.

"You're stronger than her," Flower suddenly said, her voice muffled from my headphones.

I pulled one side of the protection off of my ear. "What?"

"She beats you because she's fast," Flower explained, leaning against the wall behind me. "She's smaller than you, and she's faster than you. But she's weaker than you."

Hearing about the fight was something I was uninterested in. Especially after I had _just_ gotten it off my mind through shooting. "But… we're fighting with _poles._ Not fists."

"She hit you today," Flower reasoned. "I'm not telling you to punch her in the face, Len. I'm just saying, she's a lot smaller than you are. You're gonna have to take advantage of that to beat her."

I furrowed my brow, trying to foresee any possible way to use my strength against her in a fight like that.

"That's how she beats you, anyway. She's small and fast, but weak. You're big and strong, but slow. And she takes advantage of the fact that you're slower than her. That's how she beats you."

I knew that, though I had never thought about it in that way before. Her speed was something I had always considered to be her strength, not my weakness. But it made sense. Even in my mind still muddled with anger, it made sense.

Flower pushed herself off the wall. "Let's go check your shots, and then we'll do some more disassembling back in the armory."

"Today's the fun stuff, Len!" Anon called as Flower and I walked into the main room. Kanon sat next to her sister at the table. Rin and Yuma we nowhere to be seen.

Flower and I sat across the table from them.

"We have a contract," Kanon informed me, her eyes trained on the laptop in front of her. She crossed her arms on the table. "What's the first thing we do?"

"Hm?"

Kanon looked expectantly at me.

I let out a huff, folding my hands under the table and thinking. "Um, me and Yuma haven't gone over this stuff, yet-"

"That's okay," she shrugged. "Just guess. We've got a person contacting us for an assassination. What's the first thing we do?"

"Check what they're offering us?"

"Nope. _We_ choose the price. Our clients know that."

"...I guess research the target?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Try again." Kanon was probably closest personality-wise to Rin, though the girl in front of me with still twenty times nicer than my sparring partner.

"Hmm…" I thought, seriously trying to think of an answer. "Ask for more details from the client?"

"Closer, but not quite," she answered politely.

I shrugged.

"We need to research the client, first," she informed me, glancing back down at the laptop. "Make sure they don't have any… _ill wills_ against us. If you get a client, and you do a full background check on them only to find that there's almost no record of them whatsoever, chances are you're talking to someone using a fake identity. If that's the case, you're probably talking to an agent or a cop. You don't even want to respond to those sorts of people. Also-"

From the living wing, Rin emerged with a book in her hand. I purposely avoided my eyes, still ticked off from our sparring.

Kanon started explaining the process of accepting or declining a contract. Flower and Anon occasionally added comments. Rin stayed silent. I listened as intently as I could, though I found myself especially exhausted from my day. The anger really took it out of me.

After a while, Kanon was cut off by the sound of a door opening. I tensed at the noise. There were no doors down here. The sound was unfamiliar, and it had been ingrained in my head that anything unfamiliar was a threat.

But it was just Yuma, appearing at the bottom of the stairs, his clothes soaked and a wide grin on his face. "You guys gotta come up here," he said.

"We're in the middle of a lesson," Flower told him.

"But, it's like, _pouring._ "

Kanon grinned. "You're that impressed by the rain?"

"It _never_ rains here! Come on!" He waved us on and then turned to climb the stairs once again.

 _I haven't been outside in almost two weeks._ The realization hit me like a truck, and I longed for the fresh air. So, giving the girls one last look, I pushed myself away from the table and jogged after him.

"God dammit," I heard Flower curse behind me. And then more chairs scraped against the surface as they followed me.

The stairs were steep. I had passed them countless times during my training but never climbed them. Yuma stood at the top. He cast me a grin. "They're boring, huh-"

"Watch it, Loki," Kanon said from behind me.

He shrugged. "I didn't think you'd come. Anyway-" The door above us was closed, and the green backlight of a keypad shone from the wall. There were no lights in this hallway other than the green shine. Yuma punched in some numbers and pushed the doors open.

I had forgotten what fresh air smelled like.

Living in downtown Los Angeles didn't count as fresh air, either.  
The door opened to reveal tall, green pine trees surrounding the small metal door. Dirt and undergrowth spread across the ground, and there was no sign of human life in sight. Completely forgetting about their promise to kill me if I tried to leave, I stepped out of the cellar, looking around wildly. Leave crunched under my shoes as I took my first step out. Some small animal dashed away to my right at the noise, kicking up an array of dirt in the process. The steady sound of rain softly hitting the trees filled the air. It smelled fresh and alive. Everything felt so full of life up here, unlike the plain white walls of the base.

I had no plans of trying to escape. Even if I wanted to, I wasn't stupid enough to even _hope_ of getting away alive. Despite that, I knew the others were watching me carefully. In an odd way, I really was their prisoner. But it didn't bother me too much at the moment.

"Hey, Len," Yuma said from behind me.

I expected him to warn me not to go too far. Almost ten paces already separated me from the door, so I stopped, turning around. "I know, I know. I'm staying-"

I was cut off as a handful of mud splattered against my face.

" _Hah!_ Get fucked, dude."

I wiped the wet dirt from my face, shooting him a glare. "It is on."

I scooped up a handful from the ground, throwing it towards him. The girls nearly screamed as the crossfire pelted them, running to dodge it in response. Rin backed away, clearly uninterested.

"You asshole," Yuma scolded. "Got the girls involved?"  
Out of nowhere, Kanon appeared behind him, reaching over his shoulder and smearing a fistful of mud across his cheek. He flinched away as she laughed. "Take that," she said, before jumping away right away.

Even Flower was somewhat trying to retaliate the shots, a small smile tugging at her lips.

Someone pelted Anon in the back of her head, and her hair looked more brown than orange. She screamed in protest but laughed through it.

Yuma hit me with another good shot at the chest, but he couldn't escape the armful Flower and Kanon scooped onto his back. All of us were stained with mud up to our elbows, along with our own battle scars we earned from the fight. Flower took a shot in the leg, Yuma was able to get back at Kanon with a shot in the shoulder.

"This is my _favorite_ jacket, you ass!" She laughed back.

Only Rin had escaped the fight. Because she wasn't participating. I noticed her out of the corner of my eye wandering through the nearby trees as if looking for something.

"How about girls against guys?" Anon proposed with a grin.

"Unfair!" Somehow Yuma had ended up next to me. We were facing the three of them. "There's only two of us-"

"Sucks for you," Flower said, before letting loose another shot. It spattered against Yuma's shoulder. I held up a hand to protect my already-disgusting face from the backsplash.

"You guys are lame," Rin suddenly said, cutting off our laughter. We all turned towards her, and my shoulders slumped. "How about a real fight?" She asked smugly. In her hands were two long, thin sticks that she had plucked from the woods.

 _You're stronger than her._

Everyone's smile faltered, aware of the tense mood created. My struggle in our fights, both physical and mental, was no secret to the others.

Rin held out one of the sticks expectantly. "Anyone?" The rain continued to pour around us. They weren't like the sparring poles in the gym. They weren't perfectly straight, there were imperfections in the wood that would surely throw off its weight, and the bark wasn't nearly as smooth as I was used to.

Despite all these reasons to say no, my desire to redeem myself overcame my logic, and I stepped forward, grabbing a stick out of her hand.  
Her eyes gleamed. This wasn't training anymore. This was a show. With everyone watching. I stepped away from her, the pole in my left hand, until we had the same amount of distance away from us as usual.

 _She's smaller than you, and she's faster than you. But she's weaker than you._

The rain continued to pour. It was already cleaning the mud off my face. And blurring my vision. We had never fought in these conditions before. Despite the downpour, the air was warm. Or maybe it was the adrenaline.

Turning over the stick in my hands, I tried to adjust myself to its weight and dynamics. It was thicker than the sparring poles, meaning it would be much slower, and hit much harder. I didn't want to hurt her. I had the feeling, however, she wasn't going to be careful with me, so I made no plans to take extra care either.

The others moved off to the side, watching us.

Right from the beginning, I refused to give her the advantage. So, for the first time, I struck first.

She definitely had not expected it. I ran at her with a swing from above me, trying to clip her on the shoulder, but she gripped her stick with both hands, blocking the shot. Bark flew around our faces at the impact, just like the red-hot brass from Flower's guns. I pushed away from her, putting extra force into the shove, and watching as she stumbled back. With a quick pause, she dashed forward, trying to take a swipe towards my head. I ducked, pushing her off to the side. Rising her weapon straight over her head once more, she bore down on me. I deflected, the sticks meeting with a loud _whap,_ and we held the pose for a second.

With her stomach exposed, I didn't want to keep her near me any longer than I had to. So, bracing myself for some sort of yell from the others, I rose my foot and kicked her away from me.

She stumbled back, taken by surprise once more. I heard a few gasps from the others. _Surely that was illegal in her little set of rules,_ I figured. But she said nothing, quickly regaining herself, and looking up at me with that ice blue stare once more before dashing again.

We continued like this in our usual manner, only with much more physical contact than usual. She'd hit my hand away to knock me off my balance, I'd shove my shoulder into her to knock her off hers. There were a few times when she attempted her usual tricks to disarm me, but I was able to successfully counter them all, even getting a few good hits in on her in response. There was still no tearing that stick from her hands, like I wanted to _so_ bad, but I reveled in the fact that I didn't look like a complete idiot in front of everyone.

After minutes of this, the rain seemed to only increase, sticking my hair to my face. Hers clung against her skin as well. Both of our outfits were completely soaked through, making it much more difficult and uncomfortable to execute the maneuvers I needed to avoid defeat, but I did it.

 _She's weaker than you._

She came at me one last time, gripping the stick with both hands as she tried to rapidly swing at me with both ends. She extended her right arm, I tapped against it to stop. Her left, I tapped against it again. The attacks were quick but weak. _Weak. She's weak._ I rode out the quick assault, and, at the first pause, I slammed the staff as hard as I could into the center of hers, a blast of satisfaction rolling through me as her stick broke in half with a _crack._ Her eyes widened, and she tried to attack me with her weapon, now weapons, but I stopped her as I swooped my hand across hers, knocking one of them out of her hand. I didn't stop there. Seeing an opportunity, I jumped forward, completely letting go of my own stick, and grabbed the bottom of her arm. Turning my back, I lifted her completely off the ground, her weight nearly nothing, and pulled her through the air. The other end of her stick slipped out of her hand. I yanked her over my shoulder and slammed her into the ground in front of me.

 _Who's being thrown around like a rag doll, now?_

She landed in a puddle, splashing mud everywhere on her impact. A loud grunt escaped her as the air left her lungs in shock.

Her surprise lasted only a moment before she instinctively rolled into the kneeling position, watching me. Her fighting stance was gone. It was over. She was completely covered in mud, even more than the rest of us. For a few tense moments, the only sound in the forest was the rain.

 _Ah, shit._ I thought, trying to catch my breath. Once my adrenaline wore off, I frowned. _I've done it now._

"Holy-" Yuma said beside us, breaking the silence. "That was badass."

"Atta boy," Flower said proudly.

"Woooo!" Anon cheered.

Their words were kind, but my attention was trained on the girl in front of me, our eye contact still unbreaking. I could only imagine the rage building inside of her, the Hell I would have to go through to make this up to her. Slowly, she stood, lowering her head.

I took a deep breath. _Here it is. The screaming._ I had seen her let out a few angry shouts, specifically when I had learned my code name, but I had never seen her lose her temper before. And I didn't really want to.

The others continued their cheers. My breath caught in my throat when Rin finally rose her head.

She was smiling.

And it wasn't like one of those little smirks she gave Yuma when he said something stupid, or the grins she offered Kanon when interacting with the girl's latest invention, or even the huffs of amusement when she found something funny. No. She was _smiling._ White teeth showing, corners of her eyes wrinkling, _smiling._ Seeing her like that, her uniform covered in mud splatter, her hair stuck to her face, and her eyes shining, the thought occurred to me that she was _beautiful._

"Good work," was all she said.

"Me next! Me next," Yuma jumped in, swiping the stick from the ground. "But I get the whole one. You get the halves."

Rin moved off to the side. My eyes followed her, trying to see enough of that smile to keep in my memory forever. I had a feeling it would be a while before I saw it again, if ever.

I picked up the halves, discarded and now soaking wet.

Fighting Yuma was like walking in the park compared to fighting Rin. As we attacked each other, I watched her, out of the corner of my eye, as she opened the door, and disappeared down the stairs. Her back was completely covered in brown mud all the way up to her hair.

* * *

The next morning, I allowed myself more time eating breakfast, knowing that my sparring sessions with Rin were over, and eternally thankful for it. Without them, I had nothing to do. So I crossed to the gym a bit early to see if Flower was already there.

She was, but she was in the range, clearly practicing herself.

"I thought you weren't gonna show," Rin's voice sounded behind me.

I whirled around, catching sight of her standing on the mat, a sparring pole in each hand. "I… I'm sorry. I thought we were done."

"We are." Something about her voice had changed. Like she didn't see me as a little kid anymore. "But you can never get in enough practice." She held out a hand. "If you want."

She was giving me the option. In the two weeks I had been here, I would never have even imagined sparring her for _fun._ But, the more I thought about it, it really was pretty fun when we were evenly matched. When I wasn't losing every single time.

I considered the pole in her hand. _Fuck it._ Taking a step onto the mat, I grabbed it from her.

While her smile was long gone, she looked pleased. "You ready?"

"Hell yeah, I'm ready."

She jumped forward before the words completely left my lips.

* * *

 _I'm expecting this to be about thirty chapters. When I started it, I was anticipating no more than fifteen. I have a problem._

 _I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this story. Your reviews and follows make my day :)_

 _Thanks for reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

_This chapter is a bit longer than previous ones. We finally get to start on the action! Woohoo!_

 _Also, this is totally unrelated, but if you guys didn't know, I'm the biggest Teen Titans fan ever, and now they might be coming back with a season 6? Next story might be a superhero au. Im feeling incredibly inspired binge watching all five seasons of the original show._

 _Anywho, onto chapter 6!_

* * *

Training was so exhausting, it had become second nature for me to sleep through the roar of the generator. The more educated I became on Yuma's intel, Kanon's little gadgets, Anon's first aid, Flower's guns, and Rin's fighting techniques, the more comfortable I felt here. I had lost track of the days. It didn't worry me too much anymore. Just like my old life, this one seemed… alright.

"Len."

A heavy bag landed on my stomach, taking the breath out of my lungs. Rin stood over me. She was wearing jeans and a tank top. I had never seen her in normal clothes before, and it took me off guard.

"You have just, like, shook me or something," I grumbled, pushing the bag onto the bed next to me.

"We're leaving."

My gaze snapped to her. "What?"

"We have a contract. You're coming with me."

That simple sentence was enough to make me second guess everything. "Do… do you really think I'm ready?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you?"

"I don't know."

A sigh escaped her. "You're not doing the killing. You're just tagging along. How are you gonna learn if you don't participate?"

"It just… it still feels like I just got here."

"It's been almost two months."

 _Two months._ My funeral was probably over. My parents thought I was dead. The thought was surprisingly mild. It was my friends I was more worried about.

"If you don't come now," she continued. "Then when?"

I rested my hands on the bed, thinking. "Where are we going?"

"Chicago. Our target is a gang member."

The bag she had thrown at me was my duffle. It contained the list of items I had memorized, as well as an outfit of civilian clothes.

"So, you coming?"

 _Could I actually kill someone?_ I wouldn't be doing the killing. _But could I watch someone kill a person?_ In my new line of work, I didn't have much of a choice.

"Yeah."

She nodded in approval. "Change into those clothes, and meet me in the main room." Without another word, she turned out of the room. All the other beds were empty. The clock on the wall read seven o'clock. In the morning, I assumed.

After getting used to the tight uniforms, and even learning to appreciate the maneuverability and comfort they offered, it was weird wearing normal clothes. I felt an unexpected bout of homesickness as I looked at myself in the mirror. The showers of our bathroom were behind me, reminding me that I was nowhere near home, and yet it looked like I was getting ready to go out drinking with my friends. Or go out to eat. Or go watch a game with them.

I hadn't done anything apart from training in almost two months. No drinking, no games. Just school, basically. It was like I was back in college. Every waking moment of my life was planned. I hadn't even had the chance to try out that comfy-looking couch in the living room and flip through the channels, though I had caught the others doing it in their free time.

It felt like just yesterday when I left my parent's home state for my apartment. And yet the last few weeks had been the longest of my life.

Dwelling on it would only make it worse. With a final deep breath, I ran my hands under the cold water of the sink and splashed it in my face. _Worry about this later._ Later. It was always later, just putting it off. When would I finally have to face the facts?

I left the bathroom to find Yuma digging through the cabinets in the kitchen. I furrowed my brow at him. He was wearing his normal uniform.

"You gonna change?" I asked him.

He cast a look over his shoulder at me. "Me? Nah. I'm not going."

"Why not?"

"It's a simple job. You and Rin don't need us for this one." He continued his search. "I swear, if Flower ate my fucking barbeque chips-"

"It seems kind of dangerous. Just the two of us. Why don't you all go every time?"

'Too much work," he answered, shutting the cabinets. "Getting you two fake IDs and plane tickets was enough. I don't wanna bother doing it for all six of us."

"We're flying?"

He paused, turning to me. "Flower is driving you guys to the airport. And she better be going grocery shopping on the way home," he muttered. "Come on."

I followed him out of the room.

Everyone was gathered around the table, going over the last few details of our contract. Both excitement and anxiety rose as I saw them, only Rin, Flower, and I not in our uniforms.

"Ready to go?" Flower asked.

I fiddled with the strap of my duffle bag. "Yeah."

"Cool. Your flight's at three. We better get going."

 _Already?_ I didn't even know this trip existed ten minutes ago. And we were already leaving for the airport?

Yuma must have noticed my nervousness. He clapped me on the shoulder. "First mission, huh?"

"If you don't want to count LA," Anon added with a laugh.

"I don't," he responded. "You got this."

I sighed but didn't respond.

Rin stood tall. "Len, I wouldn't be inviting you to come if I didn't think you were ready."

"I'm good," I assured them. "Let's just go."

"Flower. We're out of chips."

She rolled her eyes. "Not this shit again."

Rin turned her attention to Kanon as Flower and Yuma began their bickering. "We'll be back in two days," she promised. "We'll be at the airport at seven on Saturday. If you don't hear from us-"

"I know, I know," Kanon waved her off. "Expect the worst."

I gulped. Kanon laughed at me. "Don't worry, new kid. This one's a walk in the park. I promise."

"Okay." I wasn't convinced. Flashbacks of running out of my apartment, jumping onto a moving semi, almost getting shot… I _definitely_ wasn't convinced.

After a brief goodbye, Flower ascended the stairs with Rin and I in tow, and opened the door.

* * *

"Relax," she said quietly as we entered the airport.

It had taken us a few hours to reach it, almost half of that time spent hiking to Flower's car. I had never expected such a quiet girl to drive such a badass Hummer.

"How are we gonna get past security?" I asked with a low voice. My eyes darted to the face of every stranger, and I felt tense enough to snap in half. I hadn't seen the public in months. It was a lot harder than I remembered.

"These bags are specially designed to hide our… things." She walked calmly next to me, glancing only occasionally at people as they passed by. Great Falls International Airport was crowded today.

The scenery of the airport was beautiful, and I tried to distract myself in it. We stepped onto an escalator with a rocky sculpture right next to it. Water trickled down peacefully.

 _We're on our way to go kill somebody._

There were statues, seats, gift shops, and people rushing to and fro. It was a typical airport, except for the wooden, rustic feel and the multitude of life-sized animals that posed around the building. They looked real enough to jump out and bite me. I was jumpy enough that a few times, I thought they were going to.

 _Somebody is going to die because of us._

The line for security was fairly short compared to other airport lines I had stood in. I tried to take deep breaths, distract myself, anything to keep me from trembling. _If anything's gonna give us away, it's me._ I was worried I was going to sweat through my shirt.

Rin stood next to me. She was calm and collected, glancing around the airport curiously, blending in perfectly. It was almost infuriating how easy this was for her.

One of the guards had a dog. A german shepherd. I tried to avoid my eyes as he walked down the line with him. Rin didn't even seem to notice them as they passed us. _They passed us._ They didn't stop us.

 _What am I facing, here?_ I wondered. Getting caught with stuff like this… what would happen to me? What would happen to Rin? What would happen to everyone else? I wasn't risking my own safety, but that of my whole team.

 _I wouldn't be inviting you to come if I didn't think you were ready._

With a deep breath, I managed to clear my mind, pretending that I was the same old Len leaving to visit his parents. We had reached the front of the line. Rin walked ahead of me, probably to ease my anxiety, and set her back down in one of the bins, removing her shoes as well. I did the same.

She walked into the metal detector, pausing as it scanned her, and stepped out with ease. The only sound I could hear was my heart thudding frantically in my chest.

 _This is it,_ I thought, glancing at our bags as they disappeared into the machines. _Caught before you even started._

I stepped into the metal detector. Rin didn't even look back at me.

The machine scanned me. I tried to keep my expression blank and indifferent. It was nearly impossible. I felt like everyone was staring at me, constantly shooting me suspicious glances, narrowing their eyes at me. But, in reality, every member of security had their eyes trained to the task, their expressions bored, and was just trying to get through another day at work.

 _They have no idea that there are assassins passing through their security right now._

I stepped out of the metal detector unharassed. Rin met me at the other side. Our bags appeared at the other end of the machine, and I felt giddy with excitement. _We did it. We did it._

We hadn't done anything yet. It was just security. I tried to hide my smile from Rin as we descended another flight of stairs into the terminals.

"Not so bad, right?" She said, her bag slung easily over her shoulder. It occurred to me that she probably had that same sniper in her bag. And yet _I_ was the one that was worried.

* * *

At first glance, Chicago didn't seem so different from LA.

We left the airport without a hitch. Rin hailed us a taxi to a nearby hotel. Despite being surrounded by so many people, I felt strangely alone with Yuma and the others with me. _If I wasn't here, Rin would probably be here alone._ I wondered if she felt the same way.

After a brief ride, we stepped out of our taxi in the heart of the city. A giant building loomed over us.

"We have a reservation," Rin said politely to the clerk. "Under 'Anderson.'"

I turned away to hide my smile at the generic name.

Once again, without any trouble, he gave us each a keycard, directing us to a room on the fourteenth floor.

We rode the elevator without a word.

 _I just traveled through public with a gun in my bag._ I was amazed.

The hallway was empty. The carpets were gold, the walls white. It seemed to be the general color scheme of the entire hotel. We stopped before our room, and Rin glanced down the hallway, looking for any other person. There were none.

"When we go in, don't say a word until I tell you to," she whispered to me.

I nodded. This entire trip, I'd be her shadow. Doing nothing, saying nothing, just watching. And following.

She swiped her card into the door and entered.

The room was simple, but sparkling with its white walls and golden carpets. A bed, a couch, a TV, a mini fridge and a microwave. The bathroom was clean, with freshly folded towels and a perfectly clean mirror. I stayed behind her as she stepped in, opening a pocket in her duffle bag, and pulled out a small circular object. I recognized it as one of Kanon's gadgets. She threw it onto the bed and began nodding her head slowly. Counting.

When she got to ten, the object beeped and flashed green.

"We're good," she said, grabbing it and setting it back into her bag.

"What's that?"

Rin chuckled softly. "Kanon calls it the 'Tapper Tracker.' It senses cameras and microphones in the room. And we're clear." She dropped her bag onto the bed. "Grab your wallet and your gun."

Without questioning, I did as she told, slipping the wallet containing my fake ID and tucking the holstered gun into the waistband of my jeans. "Aren't you bringing yours?" I asked as she took her wallet out, setting it in her pocket as well.

"No. I can't hide mine as easily. These fucking jeans-" She glanced longingly at her uniform in her bag. "They suck. If things get rough, you're in charge." The only other thing she took from her belongings was a small pair of binoculars.

 _Oh no._

"But it'll be fine. We just need to scout out our vantage point." She zipped up both of our bags and pushed them under the bed. "Let's go."

With our key cards in hand, we placed the _Do Not Disturb_ sign on the outer handle to keep any maids from finding our stuff and left the building.

"Our client told us that our best chance of finding the target is in a warehouse along Lake Michigan," she told me, her voice low. The streets were crowded, and no one was paying attention to us, but I still found it a bit unnerving how she talked about it in the open like this.

"A warehouse?"

Her eyes searched the streets as we walked. "Yup. According to the client, he's a dangerous person to hang around. I imagine this warehouse isn't in the best part of town, either."

The tall buildings completely blocked out the last lights of the setting sun, casting the streets into a premature darkness. "Do we know his name?"

"The target?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah," she answered. "It's Dex. He's a pretty young kid, eighteen according to his record."

"He has a record?"

"Len. He's a _gang member._ Of course he has a record."

 _Eighteen._ He was still a kid.

"How much are they paying us for this?"

She shifted her hands into her pockets. The temperatures were dropping, and she was in a tank top. With one more glance up and down the street, she sighed. "Eighty-five thousand."

" _Jesus,_ " I gaped, trying not to let my emotions run wild. The last thing I needed to do was draw attention to us.

She shrugged. "I guess he managed to really piss some people off."

For a few minutes, our conversation ceased. I followed her as she wove her way through the city. Wherever this place was, it was a long walk. The darker the sky became, the more people we encountered. There were groups of young people laughing and casting us glances. There were some people walking alone on their way home from work. There were one or two people stumbling drunk through the city. Every time I spotted someone watching us for a little too long, my mind flashed back to the gun tucked in my jeans. I let myself have the satisfaction of being Rin's guard, but I knew that, even when I had a gun and she didn't, she would probably be more effective than me in a fight. But hey, a guy can dream.

"Have you been here before?" I asked, noticing how naturally she seemed to traverse the city. We had been on the streets for almost an hour.

She nodded. "There are a _lot_ of contracts here."

We had torn away from the tall buildings of downtown and found ourselves in the outskirts. The skyscrapers were replaced with run down, abandoned buildings.

"It's probably best we try to stay out of sight down here," she advised me. "We're in gang territory."

So, instead of following the sidewalks, we began darting through empty alleys. We gave up walking for jogging, and, eventually, we found our destination.

The building was small, probably only two floors tall, with a slanted roof and an array of broken windows. A ragged chain-link fence stood around the entire property, discarded pieces of machinery littered the area outside, and the building's brick walls were chipped and decaying with age. At first, it was hard to see any signs of life. But the longer I stared at it, the easier it was to see a faint light coming from inside.

"Our guy has to be in there," Rin said, peeking around the wall of our current alley.

"Why aren't we just doing it tonight?" I asked her.

"The client paid extra for us to do it in front of him."

"...How much extra?"

"Almost double what he originally offered."

 _Damn._

"Plus," she continued, scanning the street separating us from the building. "We need to get a feel for the area. We need to know where we're gonna take the shot from, and where we can escape. And, if that doesn't work out for any reason, we need to know backups. And a way to improvise. This guy has followers. If we killed him without any planning, they'd be on us in seconds."

I scanned the buildings around the warehouse, trying to figure out what Rin was thinking.

She turned to me. "Where we going?"

"What?"

She nodded towards the building. "The target is in there. We need a vantage point. Where do you think we should go?"

"Rin, I don't fucking know-"

"Then look."

 _This is my first fucking mission,_ I thought with a sigh. Nevertheless, she seemed reluctant to give up, so I looked towards the buildings once more.

To the left of the factory was another abandoned building. That one, however, was in much worse shape than the factory itself. It had fallen into such disrepair that it seemed like a strong gust of wind would be all it took to knock it's wooden walls to the ground. I wasn't eager to walk into it.

To the right was an empty, dirt lot. Next down the street was a parking lot for what looked like an apartment complex. The billboard next to the building flashed annoyingly, the light clearly close to dying. But the parking lot had cars in it. People lived there.

 _It would probably be better to find somewhere high up,_ I thought, looking over the building. It was one… two… three… four stories tall, had a flat roof, and most of the lights were out. _Probably cameras, though. And it's three lots away from the warehouse._

"How far can you shoot?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Point me somewhere and I'll tell you."

I nodded towards the building. "There. The roof. You could probably get a good shot through the windows."

Her eyes followed my gaze, and she nodded. "Good thing I brought the binoculars."

After checking the street for any inhabitants, we crossed in a brisk jog. The apartment building, was, to my dismay, locked with a code.

"Shit," I muttered as I pulled at the metal door. We had followed the sidewalk from the parking lot. Decorative rocks were on either side of the path. The light underneath the door flickered occasionally.

Rin furrowed her brow, then widened her eyes as the headlights of a car passed behind us. Someone was coming.

I tensed up, but Rin stepped into the rocks, pulling me with her. She leaned casually against the wall. Taking the hint, I set my hands in my pockets. Her back was now to the door, but she was only inches away from it.

"But _she_ was the one who was late on rent-" Rin began talking complete nonsense to me once we heard the car door shut from the lot. She continued speaking until a girl walked up the sidewalk next to us. She cast us a single short glance before inserting her keycard into the door and pulled it open.

"So I don't know what to do. Should I, like, harass her about it? Because the bill's in my name-" she continued talking even after the girl disappeared inside. Just as the door was about to slam shut once more, Rin put her foot between it. She paused, listening for the girl, and then relaxed.

"Maybe not the best idea," I said once it was safe. "We can't guarantee someone'll walk in or out tomorrow in time."

She peered into the hallway. "I have a card scanner in my bag, I just didn't think we'd need it. And _that_ ," she said, turning to look at me. "Is why you _always_ bring your bag. Even though I don't."

I chuckled, following her inside.

Our footsteps echoed loudly, and we exchanged no words. There was no doubt that everyone in the building could hear the conversations bouncing off the walls in this hall. After silently climbing the concrete stairs, we found ourselves on the top floor.

 _Now to get to the roof._

All the apartment doors looked identical. At the end of the hall on the fourth floor was a door that stood out like a black sheep. Instead of the white, wooden doors we had seen, this one was grey and metal. A _Do Not Enter_ sign was plastered onto it.

 _Great. A locked door._

My eyes widened as Rin set a hand on the handle, pushing it open.

 _Guess not._

There was one more small set of stairs, another (surprisingly unlocked) door, and we set foot on the graveled roof.

"They don't lock the doors?" I asked her as she shut it behind us.

"You'd be surprised," she said. "People rarely go where they know they're not supposed to. Plus, even if they do, I bet the owner doesn't give a shit. I'd bet you a _lot_ of money that everyone in this building thinks that door is locked when none of them have ever tried the handle."

"But what if it's locked tomorrow?" I asked, kneeling down next to the edge. There was a small panel, maybe half a foot tall, lining the roof.

"I have lockpicks in my bag." She lowered herself to her stomach, looking towards the warehouse. She pulled her binoculars from her pocket.

I let out a laugh. "You seem to have a lot more in your bag than I do."

"You'll get the rest of your stuff eventually," she said, peering through the lenses.

The factory was too far to see with my naked eye, so I waited for her diagnosis. She observed the scene for a few long minutes before lowering them.

"I found him," she said softly. Handing the binoculars to me, she continued. "Right side. Poker table. He's got grey hair. There's a lamp right above him."

It took me awhile just to find the warehouse and steady my hands enough to look through them accurately. These things were amazing; it was like I was standing just outside the building, peering in through the windows.

There were dozens of people inside. Tables were set up, and some were drinking, others talking intensely, and others gambling. Our target belonged to the final group. Focusing on the right end of the building, I spotted the table Rin was referring to. Sitting at the table, along with a few other guys, was the grey-haired target. Dex. He had a pile of cash in front of him.

"I never understood the whole dye-your-hair-grey- trend," I said, lowering the binoculars.

She chuckled. "Me neither."

"So, we can see okay from here. Will this work?"

"How will we leave?" She quizzed me.

"Well… there are two exits on the first floor. We can escape through the one that isn't facing the warehouse, and retreat back into the alleys we came through."

"You don't think people will see us?"

"Not if we go at night. You said the client wanted to… watch. How's that going to work."

She looked pleased. "He's going to be at the warehouse tomorrow. Tomorrow night."

"Then it all works out."

With a curt nod, she looked back towards the warehouse. The sun had completely set by now, and the streetlamps flickered along the sidewalks. The light of them reflected in her eyes as she gazed at the scene. "How're you feeling?"

I furrowed my brow. "What?"

"You're about to assist in an assassination, Len."

"...Yeah. I know."

"And how do you feel?"

Never in my wildest dreams did I think Rin would ever be concerned about how I was feeling. "...Nervous. Anxious. A little freaked out."

She blinked, her eyes still trained on the building. I expected her to give a response. She didn't. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of hers. Those eyes were completely glossed over and lost in thought.

"Do you think we should head back?" I asked.

There was a pause, and then she sighed. "Yeah. Let's head back."

The walk back to the hotel seemed even longer than before.

* * *

 _So, like usual, I've written ahead quite a bit. My backlog of chapters is monumental. I just finished writing chapter twenty. So don't worry about this story getting cut short! Lol._

 _Thanks for reading guys :)_


	7. Chapter 7

The night before my first kill was completely devoid of sleep. And the rough mattress of the pull-out couch didn't help.

The giant window against the wall was the only source of light in the room. The moon was bright, illuminating our room in a faint and mysterious glow. The outline of Rin's sleeping form against the light reminded me once again how exhausted I would be the next day. While I spent the entire night tossing and turning, she slept like she was dead. I don't think I could have woken her up even if I wanted to. The only thing reassuring me that she was still alive was the steady rise and fall of her breathing.

It was one thing to train for a murder. It was another thing to carry it out. It was one thing to talk about how to avoid the law. It was another thing to successfully do it.

The thing bothering me the most, I figured during my restless hours in the night, was that after this, there was no going back. I would be a criminal. A _murderer._

I didn't like the sound of it. _Assassin_ fit much better. But was there really a difference?

I turned the question over in my mind until the sun rose, and Rin awoke with a sigh. "Morning," she said, her voice muffled from sleep and her eyes squinting in the light of the room.

"Morning." I leaned against the back of the couch, my eyes heavy.

"Sleep well?"

 _Should I lie?_ "No. Not really." _No point in it._

Her arms stretched over her head. "You tired?"

"Exhausted."

"Then go to bed."

I huffed in grim amusement. "It's not that easy."

"Why not?" It was a stupid question, but she asked it anyway.

I sighed. "What if… what if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will go wrong."

"How do you know?"

"I've been doing this for a _long_ time, Len. And things never go wrong."

"It did last time," I muttered with a frown.

Her shoulders slumped. "That was the first time in a while."

"I'm still worried."

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. "You can't worry when you're asleep."

I glanced out the window at the awakening city. "Don't we have to go, anyway?"

A laugh escaped her. "They have to wait until it gets dark. So no. We have nowhere to be until then."

"We don't have to… like, set up?"

"What's there to set up?"

It was a valid question, but I still felt like this was _too_ easy.

"Just go to bed."

"...Are you going anywhere today?"

"What? No."

The fear of waking up alone in this hotel room was enough to keep sleep at bay. I had never been here before, I had no way back, and, without Rin, I'd be hopeless.

I didn't voice my concern but Rin seemed to sense it anyway. "I'm not going anywhere."

 _Do you trust her?_ It was an intrusive thought, but a valid one. Did I really trust the girl who'd almost gotten me killed, dragged me into this whole situation, beat the shit out of me my first few weeks here, and more?

 _She trusted you._ I could have left the hotel. Easily. Hell, I could have grabbed one of the guns, too. I could have abandoned her in this room with nothing while she was sleeping. And she didn't warn me against it, she didn't threaten me, nothing. She had trusted me.

I curled up into a ball and pulled the thin sheets over me. The thought was comforting enough to lull me into sleep.

Rin shook me awake.

"I knew you were tired," she said smugly, looking down at me with a grin.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. "What time is it?"

"Time to go."

"What?!" I shot up. Through the window, the city was already descending back into darkness. "I slept the whole day? Why didn't you wake me up?"

She shrugged. "I didn't need to. Plus, we'll probably be up all night, anyway. Our flight leaves at five a.m. We have until then to eliminate the target, and locate our pay." She walked over to her bed. I followed, grabbing my outfit from the table next to me. She was already in hers.

"They didn't pay us yet?" I asked on my way to the bathroom.

"Nope. We're picking up the cash after the job is done."

I paused in the doorway. "We're going to _fly_ eighty-five _thousand_ dollars in cash?" I asked in disbelief.

"We'll shove it all in the hidden pockets of your bag."

"Will it fit?"

She let out a laugh. "It's not that much money. It won't take up too much room at all."

Never in my life did I ever think I would hear eighty-five thousand dollars being referred to as 'not that much money.' I didn't believe her but I knew she had way experience with this kind of stuff, so I let it go.

Emerging from the bathroom a minute later, her half-face mask hung around her neck, her bag was slung over her shoulder, and she was ready to go. "Grab all your stuff," she said, her mouth hidden behind the mask. "This is our official check out."

"You're going to the front desk with your hood up and your mask on?" I asked with a grin.

"Smartass. I did it just before I woke you up."

I frowned. "You said you weren't going to leave."

"It was just to the lobby, Len. And it was for less than five minutes. Get your shit on. We have to go."

I pulled my hood up as well, my bag over my shoulder, and lowered my mask around my neck. It'd be a little _too_ suspicious walking around the hotel with one of those on.

Rin checked the room one last time, looking for anything we had left behind. I stood patiently by the door.

After concluding that the room was clear, she took a deep breath. "Remember," she said as she appeared at my side. "We shouldn't get separated. But if we do," she held up her radio, which hung on her belt. "Codenames _only_ over the radio."

"Got it, Kára," I grinned.

She rolled her eyes. "It's weird in person. You ready?"

 _Hell fucking no I'm not ready._ "Yup."

Her hand fell on the doorknob. "Then let's go."

We followed our previous route. We had drawn a lucky card with the weather. It was a cold, clear night, so no one glanced at us more than once. With our hoods up, we just looked like any other pair of pedestrians. But Rin had a disassembled sniper rifle in her bag.

We had just reached the alleys when a question popped into mind. "What about the cameras? Don't you think the apartments have them?"

"Kanon and Yuma outfitted our bags to have scramblers in them. Makes the screen go all static when we get too close."

"But what about yesterday? We didn't have the bags, then. If they have cameras, then they already saw us."

She led the way through the alley. As we turned a corner, an animal, probably a raccoon, dashed away. "We weren't doing anything suspicious."

"Except going up to the roof."

"You're worrying too much."

"I don't think you're worrying _enough_."

She flashed me an amused look. "I haven't gotten caught yet, Len."

I didn't respond.

By the time we reached the warehouse, the sun had completely set. I widened my eyes at the building. There were _way_ more people there tonight. So many, in fact, that they were spilling out into the courtyard.

"Damn," Rin said, impressed but not concerned.

"What are we gonna do?" I whispered, peering over her shoulder.

"What do you mean? We're gonna go with the plan. I don't see Dex out there, so he must be inside."

"How do you know he's here?"

Her eyes scanned the streets. Other than the crowd laughing, yelling, and drinking outside of the warehouse, it was devoid of life. "Because the client said he would be."

"How can you trust him? Do you know him?"

"Never talked to him in my life. But we share a common interest. That's how this whole thing works. Clients want people dead, we want money. He wouldn't lie to us."

"Unless he's setting us up."

Another quiet laugh. "You're too careful."

I was going to respond similarly, but she shushed me.

"Let's move."

We crossed the street, avoiding the lights. We blended into the night perfectly with our masks pulled up. My bag bounced against my leg as we ran.

We reached the door to the building. My heart was beginning to pound. Rin took an odd-looking contraption; a plastic card with wires coming off of it, leading to a small screen. She inserted the card into the reader and typed in a few buttons. While she worked, I let my eyes scan the walls. Sure enough, there was a camera staring straight at us.

She told me it couldn't see us, but looking up at it, I felt like the Chief of Police himself was staring right back. I gulped.

The door unlocked with a _click_. Rin pulled it open. "Inside."

I did as she was told.

That was one door down. I rubbed my hands on my jacket as we began ascending the stairs towards the second door I was worried about. I wiped them off again on the second floor. By the third, they were covered in sweat once again. _What am I doing?_

I held my breath and Rin reached for the final door. She pulled the handle down and pushed it open.

 _Here we go._

One final staircase later and we were on the roof. From here, we could see the party occurring below us with even more clarity.

Rin dropped her bag on the ground and pulled out the parts to begin assembling her gun. I watched carefully. Flower and I had gotten a little further in the disassembling practice, but only with the simple guns. Not this monster that Rin seemed to favor over the others.

It was impressive watching her work. In less than five minutes, she turned a pile of seemingly unmatching parts and built them together to create a deadly killing machine. I was pretty sure it was the same rifle she used in my apartment. If we leaned it against the wall, it would be almost taller than her.

The rifle was completely black as well. She rested the bipod onto the ledge, sitting cross-legged, and peered through the scope. I watched her silently.

"Len," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Grab my phone out of my bag."

I did as she told.

"I need you to text this number-" she relayed the phone number to me, and I typed it in with shaking hands.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked.

"Just say, _In position._ "

I nodded, typing in the message. Once it sent, I closed the flip phone, and set it on the gravel. It vibrated as soon as I dropped it.

"What's it say?" Her eye never left the scope as she talked.

" _Back of the room. When you're ready._ " I read.

A small grin tugged at the corner of her lips. "I like this guy. Straight to the point. My binoculars are in my bag. Help me find him."

Once again, I did as I was told. I peered through the scope, looking for any sign of the grey-haired kid. "Standing next to the table he was at yesterday," I spotted after a few minutes. "Talking to some blonde girl."

Rin adjusted her aim. "Spotted."

After giving the guy one last look, I lowered the binoculars. My hands were trembling too violently to see through them clearly, anyway. _This is it._

"Get behind me," she suggested. "This thing kicks noise out to the side. You'll go deaf sitting there."

I jumped behind her, throwing the things into my bag and preparing for our escape.

"Target in sight," she said softly. "Three, two, one-"

I watched as her slim finger pulled the trigger. The gun exploded in sound, pushed back against her small frame and making her shoulder jerk back. It looked painful, but she paid little attention to it.

Glass broke, and someone screamed. Rin pulled the gun in and began to disassemble it with the same ferocity as before.

"Hold onto that phone," she ordered, her words calm, but quick.

 _It's done. We just killed someone._

I closed my eyes. He was eighteen. The thought suddenly occurred to me that maybe eighty-five thousand _wasn't_ enough money. It was a lot, yes. But for a life?

A life.

"Len."

I blinked my eyes open. Rin had finished, her bag on and her mask up, and was staring at me, concerned.

"I'm fine," I reassured her before she said anything else.

Her eyes seemed unconvinced, but she stood tall. "We need to move."

 _The fun part. Running away._

We descended the stairs much faster than before and pushed our way out of the building.

"That was loud," I huffed as we disappeared into the alleys. "Don't you think… they heard it?"

"Gunshots are probably pretty common on this side of town," she reasoned. "They definitely heard it. But they can't be surprised."

"They'll know where we shot from. And if they check the cameras-"

"Faces with no names," she interrupted me, dashing around a corner. "Even if they did see us, they have no idea who we are. And, as unfortunate as it is, people die all the time in the gang world. Honestly, they probably won't look into it too much."

 _I wonder who that girl he was talking to was._

I pushed the thought out of my head as soon as it appeared. It was over. It was done.

"If it really bothers you, think of it this way-" she continued, her breath growing uneven at our running. "He was a big member of this thing. He's probably killed people, too."

For some reason, it didn't make me feel better.

The phone in my hand vibrated, taking me off guard. "The phone-"

"What's it say?" She slowed to a halt. We were deep into the jungle of buildings by now.

I glanced down at the phone. " _Third floor, men's bathroom, fifth stall, in the tiles,_ " I read. "And then an address."

She huffed. "Looks like you're grabbing the cash, then."

After navigating the city for another few hours, we found ourselves across the street from a casino. Its obnoxiously bright signs lit up the night like the sun itself, and people streamed both in and out of the front doors. It had to be midnight by now.

We watched the building from the safety of an alley. Rin turned to me. "I'll stay here with our stuff. You go get it."

I blinked. "By myself?"

"Len, all you have to do is walk in, walk up to the third floor, and go to the bathroom."

"B-but, where do you want me to put the money?"

She rolled her eyes. "It'll only be, like, three or four stacks. You'll be able to fit it all in your holster, easy."

I had almost forgotten about the pistol still tucked into my waistband. "I don't know-"

"It'll be easy," she promised. "And quick. I'd go with you, but I'm _not_ leaving this stuff alone here. Plus, our plane tickets are in here. If someone steals our bags-"

"Fine," I huffed. "Fine. I'll go."

She nodded. "The quicker you go, the quicker you'll be back. I'll be _right here._ I'm not moving until that money is in our bag, okay?"

"Okay." I clenched and unclenched my hands.

"I'll see you in five minutes," she said.

"Five minutes." _I can go into a casino for five minutes without drawing attention. Totally._ I removed my mask, throwing it with our stuff, and left the shadow of the alley for the sidewalk.

Entering the building was easy. I just stepped into the never-ending wave of gambling-addicted drunks. Once I was swept into the building, the real fun began.

People of all ages, races, and genders occupied the slot machines. I noticed with a frown that security was tight, most-likely to keep people from cheating. There were poker tables and other card games I didn't recognize. I had never been much of a casino guy myself.

I spotted a staircase. Too scared of being stuck in an elevator in a time like this, I walked towards them.

People dressed in suits traversed the floor with platters of drinks and food. There were no clocks to be seen. I had heard that casinos never have clocks, just to keep people inside for as long as possible, but I'd never confirmed the rumor. It was true.

On the second floor, there were even more tables and booths. The staircase to the third floor was harder to find, tucked away in one of the corners. I bumped into someone as I passed the floor.  
"Watch where you're going," the bald man snarled without looking at me twice. It was strange. I felt like I stood out more than anything. But to these brainwashed people, I was just… one of them.

But I wasn't.

I grinned, climbing the stairs to the final floor. The bathrooms, to my great relief, were right at the top.

I pushed my way in, happy to find it empty. The third floor seemed to be the staff floor, so I probably wasn't allowed up here, but that also meant that it was much more empty than the other floors. I counted to the fifth stall and entered.

 _In the tiles._ He must have meant the floor. I looked down, my eye caught by a single white tile with a corner chipped out of it. Lifting it up, my eyes widened.

Four stacks of neatly rubber-banded hundred dollar bills were sitting in the little hole carved into the ground. Four stacks equal eighty-five thousand dollars? I couldn't believe it. I was so doubtful, in fact, that as I gingerly picked each stack from the ground, I counted it. I didn't need to get through the full stack to discover that it was indeed true. The first one I counted, I stopped a little more than halfway through at the 170th hundred dollar bill. _I just counted seventeen thousand dollars._ And there were three more stacks to go.

It was enough to convince me we had received our full pay. Rin would probably count it when she got the chance, just to be sure, so I decided not to worry about it.

 _I'm shoving my entire college tuition in my pants right now._ I laughed at the thought.

Two minutes later, I pushed my way out of the bathroom and back down the stairs. Out of everyone here, I had definitely hit the biggest jackpot.

Without a care in the world, I waltzed out of the building, straight into the alley where I had left Rin. My heartbeat picked up. I couldn't see her, or the bags, at all.

Until I nearly walked into her.

"Did you get it?" She asked, leaning against the building. The shadow completely disguised her. People walked on the sidewalk only a few feet away, and even they didn't spot her.

I tapped my holster. "Yup."

She grinned. "Sick. Come on. Let's put it in the bags, and then head to the airport."

We retreated further into the alleys until we were out of sight from the main streets. Only then did I pull the stacks out, placing them in the secret pockets of my bag.

"See?" She said, flipping through one of the stacks. "Not so bad, right?"

"Are you sure this is all the money?" I asked.

"This one had twenty-five thousand, and the others look the same. Except for the smallest one. That's the ten-thousand. We'll be sure when we get home, but I doubt the guy shorted us. He seemed smarter than that." She placed the final stack into the back.

I zipped it up, standing tall. "What now?"

Rin brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Now," she began, her voice strong with victory. "We go to the airport, and fly home."

* * *

 _Eyyyy. That easy. In and Out._

 _Sorry Dex. I'll make it up to you later._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	8. Chapter 8

_I think I might start updating this every day again. College is starting soon, so there may be a lull in stories for a few weeks and I wanted to make sure that you guys are getting the all the fics ya can._

 _Short chapter ahead! Next one is a bit more eventful. And then it gets interesting._

 _Enjoy :)_

* * *

Yuma spun on his chair, a grin plastered across his face. " _There_ they are."

We descended into the bunker with Flower in tow. My legs ached from our hike here, my shoulder felt like it was going to break under the weight of my bag, and I wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed. These plain white walls had never seemed so welcoming.

"How'd it go?" Kanon asked next to him. Anon peered her head out of the infirmary with a smile.

"No issues," Rin answered. "Money's in the bag. Just need to count it."

"How you feeling?" Yuma stood from his chair and clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"Tired," was all I could say. Rin cast me a brief glance. When she had asked the question, it had been much more genuine than Yuma was now.

Yuma frowned. "I thought you'd be up for a rematch," he said in mock disappointment. "See if you're any less of a wimp, now."

I chuckled. "Maybe later."

"And I thought we were shooting today," Flower chimed in with a sly smile.

"We still have to go over some stuff, too. I'm sure you saw a few more gadgets on your trip?" Kanon tapped her fingers against the table. "Gotta learn 'em."

"And more first aid!" Anon chirped from the infirmary, before finally emerging fully into the room.

I shook my head. _Please, no training today. Please-_

"Let him sleep," Rin said, setting her bag down on the table and zipping it open. "It's been a long few days."

I opened my mouth to express my unending gratitude but shut it as she turned to me.

"Go shower, and go sleep," she said. "You'll get back to the schedule tomorrow."

Though we couldn't tell from the bunker, the sun was setting. I had watched it as we hiked to the base. "Okay." She didn't need to tell me twice.

With my bag on my shoulder, I trudged to the living quarters.

I turned the handle to one of the showers first thing, letting it warm up. It took a while sometimes. Only when I set my bag on the ground and began to undress did I realize that I had nothing to change into. I was still in these jeans, and my uniform was filthy after our contract. Leaving the water running to continue heating up, I left the bathroom to fetch some clothes from my cubby.

As I passed the hall to the main room, I noticed with a hint of unease that it was completely silent. I cast a glance in the direction to see all five of them sitting at the table, each with grim expressions. Rin and Kanon counted the money from the stacks.

"We have to talk about LA eventually," Flower suddenly said. The others frowned at her words.

I moved back behind the wall. They hadn't noticed my eavesdropping. And, though I felt a bit guilty spying on them, I figured I might finally get some answered.

"What's there to talk about?" Rin asked. "This stack is good."

Yuma huffed. "There's plenty to talk about. What are we gonna do now?"

"We're gonna do what we did before. Keep looking for leads. We'll find Luka again."

There was a pause.

"...It- It took up a lot of resources. Not to mention time. We spent years-"

"I know how long it took," Rin snapped, cutting Anon's small voice off.

Kanon let out a sigh. "Are we really going to go through all that again?"

A _bang_ resounded through the room. Rin smacked her hand on the table. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, maybe it's time to just let it go."

There was another pause.

"How could you say that?" Rin finally said. "Are you really gonna let her get away with…" she trailed off.

"You're not the only one who lost him, Rin." Yuma's voice was darker than I had ever heard before.

Rin didn't respond.

"And after LA, Luka's sure to be looking for us, too. We can't afford to go after her again. Not right now."

She remained silent.

"So, I'm just saying, maybe we should give it a break."

 _LA._ No doubt talking about their mission I fucked up. _Luka._ I'd heard the name before. She must have been the one they were assassinating. _But Rin had missed._ Because of me. They had failed. Whoever this girl was, she seemed important.

The conversation had ceased and the room fell once again into an uncomfortable silence. Convinced I had heard enough, I quietly crossed the room to retrieve my clothes.

The shower is definitely the best place for thinking. And after witnessing that, I had a lot of it to do.

It wasn't hard to piece together what was going on. They had said that LA wasn't a contract. So they were trying to kill this girl, Luka, out of their own personal interest. There were six beds down here, and, before I arrived, only five of them. That had lost someone. Probably to this girl.

I ran my hands through my hair and let out a sigh. This… _Helgi_ guy. Yuma said his name was Gumo. Not only had I taken his bed, taken his gear, and replaced him in every way possible, but I had fucked up their chance at avenging him. _Wow. No wonder Rin didn't like me._

The general idea was there, but the details were yet to be filled in. How did he die? How long ago was this? And how does Luka play into all this? Who even is she?

These answers I had finally received led to only more questions.

They continued to eat at my brain throughout the week. Finally, as I pointed the barrel of an AR-50 sniper rifle down range, I decided to ask about it.

"Flower," I said once the blast from the bullet disappeared. This gun could only fit one bullet at a time, and, to my pleasure, didn't eject the bullet shells straight into my face. I had to remove them manually.

"What's up?" She leaned against the wall casually. There was little to be said now that we had gotten so far into our training. It was all a matter of practice for me. Therefore, she seemed surprised that I spoke up.

"Can I ask you something?" I pulled the shell out of the chamber, still able to feel the heat through my gloves. I threw it in a bucket next to me. It was nearly full of similar casings.

"Go for it."

"Who's Luka?"

She tensed, clearly unprepared for the question. "How do you-"

"I may have… um, _overheard_ a conversation you guys were having when we came back," I admitted. The gun was unloaded. I gently set the back of it on the ground and looked up at her from the floor expectantly.

She shook her head. "Little eavesdropper, huh?" I knew out of everyone, she was the most likely source of a real answer.

I shrugged but said nothing.

The gears in her head began turning as if she were selecting her words carefully. "Luka's another prominent member of the… _underground_ business world," she explained.

"Which means…" I egged her on.

She sighed. "She's a huge drug lord, basically."

Of all the things I had imagined, that had not been one of them.

"Then… then why-"

"Why were we trying to kill her?" She finished the question for me.

I nodded slowly.

She crossed her arms, looking through the glass behind us. Her eyes scanned the room as if looking for the others. Even if they had been out there, it was impossible to hear anything on the other end of the wall.

With a deep breath, she began.

"Look, I'm only telling you this because you're one of us now. The others might not agree with me. So don't, like, go blabbing to them about this or anything, okay? Especially Rin."

I nodded again. I hadn't planned on it anyway.

"Okay. So, we've never really had any problem with Luka. I mean, yeah, she deals drugs to basically the entire world, but we kill people, so there's really no difference in morals with us. We'd heard of her, we'd never met her, we'd never had any interaction with her or anything. So, fast forward to a couple of years ago, all… all _six_ of us are hanging out in our bunker." She paused. "Our old one. Our US base used to be deep in the Rocky Mountains. We all settled down for bed, turned off the generator and everything. And then, out of nowhere, a bunch of Luka's guys just storm the place."

"How'd they find you guys?" I asked.

"We have no idea. But they did. And we fought. There were just too many of them. And they..." she looked over her shoulder again, her expression faltering slightly. "They killed Gumo. In front of us. And then they took him."

Although I had already figured most of this out, I was still in shock. "Fuck," I responded.

"Yeah. They trashed the entire place, and we had to leave. That's why we made this place."

I didn't know what to say. It made perfect sense, now, why this was such a touchy subject.

"So we came here, and we've been hunting Luka for years to get our payback. And we found her, in LA." She shrugged. "You know the rest."

Something just didn't make sense to me. "If you guys tolerated each other, why did she attack you?"

She sighed. "We've been trying to figure out the answer to that question for years. We still have no idea. Yuma thinks she was scared we'd come after her eventually, which makes no sense to me because we had no intention to until she attacked us. We've tossed around the idea that she's trying to monopolize the market, forming an assassin team of her own. But that doesn't make sense either, really. She's probably the richest woman in the world, and has no reason to take on more stress than she already has."

I furrowed my brow in thought. "You said you guys were asleep when it happened."

"Yeah."

"Did… did you guys sleep in the same bed you do now?"

She sighed. "Yup. Gumo was in the back."

"So they passed all of you guys to get to him?"

"Yeah." Her eyes glanced over the room once more. "They targeted him. But that is a bit easier to explain."

I stared at her, completely engrossed in the story.

"Gumo was… he was _good_ at what he did. Like, freakishly good. Every detail of every mission was planned perfectly, nothing ever went wrong, nothing ever took him off guard… It makes sense that, out of all of us, they would want him gone. We just don't know why."

"But why would you guys give up?" I could see Rin's side here.

Flower chuckled. "Even you must know it's not easy to track down the most wanted woman in the world. Years of searching, looking for her old clients, trying to trace the shipments she set out, everything was covered expertly. Which we expected, obviously. We still have no idea where she lives, if she even has _one_ place. We only discovered her trip to LA by accident. A very lucky accident. And now that that's… done, she's sure to be on even higher alert. Because now she knows we're after her."

Her words made sense, but I couldn't help but feel that same wish for vengeance. And I didn't even know the guy. I just stole his stuff.

"It could be another several years before we catch even a trace of her. The expenses we have to take only to reach dead ends, the resources we have to give up… It's just too much."

"But-"

"He's gone," Flower concluded. "We all have to accept that." Her eyes traveled downrange. "Keep going."

My questions were answered, but unease still gnawed at me as I hesitantly pushed another bullet into the chamber, and closed the bolt.

* * *

One day, as I was sorting through a few new additions to my bag with Kanon, Flower waltzed down the stairs. Rin was watching us as Kanon explained the devices one more time, Yuma digging through the cabinets in the kitchen, and Anon running in the gym.

"You two," Flower said, having just returned from the public world. She pointed to Rin and I. "Meiko has a contract for you. She wants to meet you in Toronto in a few days."

"Toronto?" I asked, the question of our passports rising up. Even when I was still alive according to the world, I had never even applied for one.

"She's based somewhere in Canada," Flower explained. "She prefers to meet there."

"Who is she?"

"Basically the phone operator of the Black Market. People who don't know how to contact us directly, or people who don't want their identity revealed, go through her."

Rin clapped her hands together. "That means it's a big one."

Flower shrugged. "She didn't elaborate any details. She said it was important, though."

"When's our flight?" Rin asked, clearly excited.

"Tomorrow morning. Early."

She jumped from her chair. "Let's get packing!" With a grin, she disappeared from the room.

"Are you guys coming with us?" I asked Flower once she was gone.

She shook her head. "You guys will receive the contract yourselves, then come back here for a few days to plan. From there, we'll see if it's necessary for us to come with you two."

I nodded. "Okay."

"So finish this up, and then go get ready. Tomorrow," she put her hands in her pockets, smiling smugly. "You'll be in Canada."

* * *

 _Ooooooh we get to meet Meiko in the next chapter!_

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	9. Chapter 9

I had expected an international Black Market dealer to want some sort of privacy for her meetings. When our taxi dropped us off in front of a crowded coffee shop, I realized just how wrong I was.

We had left Montana before the sun came up, and arrived in the sunny city of Toronto early in the morning. I was exhausted, but we had no time to rest. Our flight out was tonight.

"Listen," Rin said, turning to me in front of the doors as our taxi drove off. "She's very… distrustful of new people. I don't want you to sit with us."

I furrowed my brow. "What? But if I'm with you-"

She shook her head. "She's gonna be put off by a new face. She'll be sitting on the right side of the cafe. I'm gonna go over to her, and I want you to grab a coffee and go off to the left. Try to act natural."

"But… but what do you want me to _do_?"

"Keep watch. Nothing should go wrong, but if it does, you're back up."

I nodded. The plan was unappealing to me, but I knew I had no choice.

"Alright. When I leave, wait a minute or two and then leave after me. We'll meet here."

"Okay."

She turned her gaze to the door and pushed them open.

All the unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells of the shop filled my senses. I had frequented the bars in LA much more than I had frequented the coffee shops. The air smelled like coffee grinds and caramel. The sunlight poured in through the windows peacefully, almost tricking me into thinking we weren't here on assassin business. I wore my civilian clothes, as did Rin, but my bag slung over my shoulder was a constant reminder of why we were here.

Rin said nothing as she veered off to the right, clearly catching sight of Meiko. I didn't watch her as she left. Instead, I walked into the line with my hands in my pockets. _All I have are hundred dollars bills._ Hopefully, they could break for change. _Guess I'm ordering food, too._

A haze of human voices hung over the room. With my newfound suspicion of anything and everything, I found it much easier to focus in on one conversation and then switch to the next. It was like over the last few weeks I had become a professional eavesdropper. Two girls sitting at a table near the counter were talking in low voices about one of the baristas, a businessman a few tables down from them was ranting into his earpiece about a "fucked up project" in work while he typed away on his laptop, and the baristas themselves talked about anything and everything, from customers' orders to what they were doing after work today.

I glanced over in the direction Rin had wandered off to. She had seated herself in a booth next to a girl I didn't recognize, but assumed was Meiko. She looked much older than us, old enough to be Rin's mother. With her shorts and tank top, she blended perfectly into our surroundings. The two of them were talking already, Meiko shooting glances in my direction. She must have seen us walk in together.

I ordered my food, ignoring the dirty look the employee gave me as I handed them a hundred dollar bill. _I ordered, like, thirty dollars of food, dude. Jeez._

"Name?" He asked, prepared to type it into the computer.

"L-" I caught myself, trying to remember the name on my ID. "-Oliver."

He typed it in, oblivious to the fact that I had basically forgotten my own name.

"It'll be ready in a few minutes."

"Thanks." I moved off to the left side of the cafe, watching the girls out of the corner of my eye.

I leaned against the wall next to the counter where they would set my food. I crossed my arms, scanning the cafe in front of me. This eavesdropping thing, though pretty nosy and rude, was pretty fun. I kept zoning in on certain conversations, curious about the lives of these normal people. There was a couple arguing near the window. A lady talked on the phone with her landlord in the corner. A group of teenagers snickered at a video on one of their phones. _All these normal lives._

"Oliver!" A female barista called. I almost forgot my name again, grabbing the bag from her with a grin.

The only empty table was near the far corner of the store, completely opposite where Rin and Meiko were. I had tried several times to hear what they were saying but they spoke with low voices and were too far away to hear. Occasionally I could make out Rin's voice among the others, but it was never clear enough to make out specific words. Especially over the sound of the blenders behind the counter.

I took a seat, leaning back in my chair and picking at my food. I wasn't especially hungry, but I picked at it slowly anyway.

Allowing myself to pay more attention to the girls, I noticed curiously that Rin's poker face was strained. I could tell by the slight furrow in her brow, the way she leaned forward as the older woman spoke to her, and the way she tapped her fingers into the table. Whatever Meiko was telling her, it was either troubling or exciting.

They spoke for a much longer time than I had expected. My eyes found the clock often, watching as the hand passed fifteen after, then thirty after, and then forty-five after. I was suddenly thankful I had slowly picked at my food. It would have been long gone before we finally left. And Rin's expression remained that same curious stare all throughout the meeting.

Finally, Rin nodded a final time, then stood. She left Meiko to her laptop, which she stared at intently. With a quick glance in my direction, she exited the room.

As instructed, I waited a few moments before following her.

"What was it?" I asked in a low voice, exiting the cafe to find her leaning against the building.

She shook her head. "We'll talk about it when we get home. It's… it's big."

I took a deep breath. _I'm gonna have to go, too._

"Come on," she said, glancing towards the street. "Let's get to the airport."

"The airport? Already?"

"The job is done, Len. What else are we gonna do?"

"What time is our flight?" I looked up and down the street. Pedestrians walked past us with smiling faces.

"Nine."

I furrowed my brow. "It's noon."

She shrugged. "We'll have plenty of time to rest before the flight." On the road, she was looking for a taxi.

I rubbed at the back of my neck. "Do you guys… like, ever do anything _fun?_ " I asked.

She huffed. "We're here on business."

"And the business is over," I reasoned.

Putting her hands on her hips, she turned to face me. "And what do you want to go do?"

I shrugged. "I've just, like, never been to Toronto before. I wanted to see it."

"You just want to walk around?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"It beats sitting there in the airport for nine hours."

She seemed unconvinced, staring up at me with a sneer on her face. "Fine. For a little."

I smiled. "Sick."

"Where we going?"

We had two options. Right on the sidewalk, or left on the sidewalk. I pointed to the right. "Let's go see what trouble we can get into."

"Oh _God,_ " she groaned. "Don't say that. You're gonna make me change my mind."

I grinned. We started down the sidewalk.

It was a perfect day. Warm, but not uncomfortably so. The occasional breeze sent a cool chill down my spine. The sun shone overhead with the occasional cloud passing over it. People walked by with smiles, laughing, talking, humming to themselves. The sidewalk ran along a busy street but there were no annoying honks or angry drivers.

"Check it out," Rin nodded towards a park as we passed it. It was a small, square park with four paths leading up to the middle where a grand waterfall stood. Standing on the edge of it was a man dressed in a fancy suit, a violin on his shoulder. The high notes reached my ears before the applause of the crowd around him. I could only catch glances of the man through the people.

"Damn. He's good." We kept walking, and eventually, the notes faded into the distance.

It felt weird, in a pleasant way, walking through the streets like any other person. With every person that passed, I imagined being in their point of view, seeing a guy and a girl with two bags casually walking down the street. Definitely not assassins, or anything.

We walked the hours away wordlessly. With all the working out I'd been doing, I didn't feel tired, either. The two of us were silent onlookers to the world around us. It was a comfortable silence.

We had found ourselves walking along the sidewalk bordering Lake Ontario near Old Toronto. We passed the Toronto islands, caught sight of the crowd of tourists taking pictures of the Prince's Gate, and never stopped. The sun was beginning to drop behind the city to the west.

Rin took a deep breath. "We should really get going soon," she said.

"How long is the drive to the airport?"

"About a half hour. We'll have to hail down a taxi, too."

"And what time is it now?" I walked with my hands in my pockets, enjoying the endless horizon of the huge lake stretched out to our left.

She checked the watch strapped around her wrist. "Six."

"We still have three hours."

"But security and everything-"

"We have plenty of time."

She let out a huff of air and crossed her arms impatiently.

We continued walking. The sidewalk pulled off from the side of the street and wound through a field of grass. The traffic on the path suddenly picked up, as if we had entered the pedestrian rush hour.

"What's going on?" Rin asked, trying to peer over the crowd that had formed around us.

I could see over them much easier. "I think there's, like, a fair."

She rolled her eyes. "Can we leave now?"

"What?" I asked defensively. "You don't want to get beat at some carnival games?"

She glared at me. "We need to go."

"We have three hours."

"Len, I fucking swear-"

I picked up the pace, glancing at her with a sly smile, before pushing through the crowd. Her frustrated self had no choice but to follow me.

I was right. The crowd was headed towards a carnival of sorts. The massive carnival rides stood on either side of us, their lights still off in the waning daylight. The sidewalk had disappeared from under us to reveal a dirt path leading through the rides. I could smell the deep fryers in the food booths, hear the angry sighs of people losing at their games, and the screams of the riders around me. Rin was right. We needed to go soon. But I was so eager to experience civilian life for just a little longer, I found myself able to go against her wishes.

No matter how angry she became.

"Len. We're gonna miss our flight."

"We have… two and a half hours."

" _Len._ "

My eyes fell on one of the booths. There were small water guns positioned at the side with stools in front of them. Across from them sat targets. An array of stuffed animals hung from the roof, some larger than the girl next to me. I grinned. "Hey, Rin."

"What." She spoke in a monotonous voice.

"Let's shoot some targets." I pointed in the direction of the game, smiling sneakily.

She cast her eyes in its direction and frowned. "You're an idiot."

"I'm an idiot who's about to prove that I'm better at shooting than you."

"With water guns? We could _actually_ test that claim back at the base," she snarled.

"But what fun is that?" I didn't wait for her answer, instead beelining for the booth. A bored host manned the booth.

"You intend to pay him with hundreds?" Rin called after me.

"I've got plenty of change from the cafe."

"How would Flower feel to know that you're spending her money on fucking _carnival games,_ " she muttered.

I shrugged. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her."

The host perked up as we walked by. "Three dollars a game!" He called.

I pulled out my wallet, smacking a five and a one on the table as I took a seat in front of gun number three. "Come on," I waved to Rin."

With her arms crossed, she continued glaring at me for a moment before letting out an exasperated breath. "One. Game. But only because you insulted my skill."

She dropped her bag in the dirt between us and took a seat at gun number two. Some other kids ran up, joining in our game, but we paid them no attention.

"Shoot at your target to raise your bar. First person to reach the top wins!" The host called in a robotic voice. He sounded like he was reading directly from a script.

I took careful aim with my squirt gun. It was not leftie-friendly.

"Three. Two. One. Go!"

The kids next to us giggled while they aimed their guns wildly. Rin stared at the target like it was alive. The water shot out of our guns in pathetic little streams. Rin hit her target perfectly, but I wavered for a second.

"What?" I called, panicked. "This thing is _not_ made for lefties!" I called, finally finding my target.

Of course, only a few short seconds later, a bell dinged and Rin sat up straight with a triumphant smile. "You want me to win you a stuffed animal, Lenny?" She taunted.

I frowned. "Rematch."

"You're on."

The kids left, leaving us alone. I set the money on the counter once more. The host waited a moment to see if anyone wanted to join before starting the game with just the two of us.

This time, I was ready. I corrected my aim, hitting the target perfectly from the start. In my concentration, I started shooting half a second before Rin did. We both hit our targets perfectly. But I won the second round.

She huffed. "Bullshit. I wasn't ready."

"Well, we're tied now. We _have_ to play again," I reasoned.

Despite her clear annoyance, a small smile tugged at her lips. "One more."

More money. The bell sounded again. Somewhere behind us, a loud _ring_ sounded out from another game, followed by a chorus of cheers.

We started again, both hitting it perfectly, both starting at the same time. By some force of God, she won.

"Hah," she laughed, leaning back. "This is why _I'm_ the one training _you._ "

"Whatever," I grumbled.

The host offered us our choice of stuffed animals, which we refused. No point in lugging one of those things through security.

"How's it feel to eat your own words?" Rin gloated.

"How's it feel to brag about winning a game with water guns?" I countered.

She looked at me accusingly. "This was your idea, not mine. Just accept defeat. I'm the better shot."

"Well you have been doing this way longer than me," I reasoned.

"True. Know your place," she joked as we walked away from the booth. " _Second_ place."

"What about that one?" I pointed to another game. It was a much more realistic range, with real pellet guns, shooting at a small piece of paper across down the booth. "I think that would be a better judge."

Her smile disappeared. "We really need to go-" her voice was almost pleading.

"Would it kill you to have just a little fun?" I asked.

Her eyes hovered on the booth, and her shoulder slumped in defeat. She glanced at me again. "You just _want_ to lose, don't you?"

It turned into many, many games, and we almost missed our flight.  
Almost.

* * *

Flower, Rin, and I entered the base hastily. Everyone was waiting for us.

"What is it?" Kanon called excitedly.

Anon clapped her hands together. "Tell us! Tell us."

Rin set her bag on the table, digging out a folder with a man's picture paperclipped to the top. He was wearing a suit.

Flower peered over her shoulder and grinned at the picture. "He looks… important."

"Bruno Maretti," Rin began, taking a deep breath. "He's a Spanish CEO but recently moved his company to Beijing. The client wants him gone."

Yuma grinned. "For how much?"

At the question, Rin opened the file with a small grin. "The client already paid Meiko. She'll deposit the money electronically into our account when the job is done."

"But _how much?_ " Yuma repeated. The entire room held their breath.

Rin's smile broke through. "Ten million."

" _Ten million dollars!?"_ Yuma's mouth dropped open. "Holy shit."

Anon and Kanon shared mirrored grins. Even Flower looked stunned.

Rin sat down, digging through the files. "So," she began. "Where do we start?"

* * *

 _Finally! The action begins next chapter!_

 _Well, the main action :)_

 _Thanks for reading!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Ahhh. The main plot begins._

* * *

" _Helgi. Are you ready?"_

"As ready as I'll ever be," I murmured into my earpiece. Since our plot was public, we had ditched the radios for something more discreet.

" _You're clear to enter the building. Don't draw attention to yourself. Good luck,"_ Rin explained through the mic.

I took a deep breath and pushed in the glass doors to enemy territory.

We were in the heart of Beijing. Bruno's building wasn't the tallest in the city, but it definitely wasn't the smallest either. Swarms of people crowded the streets and the building. Most, in this part of town, were dressed in business wear. I had never expected to hear so many people speaking English in China. Still, I heard my fair share of unintelligible conversations.

The lobby of the building was modern and large. There were the front desks, behind which sat two blank-faced clerks. _Confidence can get you anywhere,_ Yuma had reminded me before we left.

Keeping my chin high, I walked right past the desk. Neither of them paid any attention to me.

Somehow, I had ended up alone for this part of the mission. Yuma was flying over the city with Anon and Kanon in the helicopter, ready for our pick-up once the job was done. Rin was in one of the taller buildings nearby scoping out the scene, and Flower was at home. As she promised, she was nowhere near the scene of the crime.

They had shown me a map of the building but it wasn't much help. Now, in person, I had to turn myself around once or twice before I finally found the stairs to the basement.

" _Yeah. The windows are angled horribly for a shot out here,"_ Rin said. " _I'll meet you in five minutes. Did you find them?"_

"No," I said, checking the hall to make sure I was empty. "But I'm pretty sure I'm close." As I walked by, I pushed every door open. I was in the maintenance hall. _If anyone finds you, use the age-old excuse. "I was looking for the bathroom."_ No one had found me yet. But the further down the hall I walked, the harder my heart was beginning to beat.

" _Find them. I'm on my way. Sol, is it clear?"_

" _Yeah,"_ Kanon answered. " _No one on your tail. You should be okay."_

I pushed open a final door and grinned. "Found it," I said softly, stepping inside and closing the door behind me. I had never been so relieved to hide in a janitor's closet.

" _Start changing. I'm coming,"_ Rin told me.

Along the walls of the room were lockers. Some were closed, but most were open. Hanging inside of them were navy blue pants and a button up shirt. I grabbed a pair I thought would fit me and began fitting them over my clothes.

I was freaking out, sure, but the intensity of the situation hadn't hit me yet. Getting caught in a plot like this was life in prison. Or worse, if they found out who I was associated with. Not to mention the fact that this guy had guards outside of his office on the top floor. Yes. _Guards._ Big, buff security guys with dark sunglasses and permanent frowns. I was not looking forward to getting past them. Rin had said there was only one way. Fighting. The janitor outfits would get up that far, but nothing but brute force would get past them.

As I slipped my arm into one of the sleeves, I froze. There were footsteps in the hallway. The door was closed, and I tiptoed quickly over to lock it and then halted once more in fear of being caught. The footsteps echoed down the hallway, coming from upstairs just as I had. They walked slowly and calmly past the door, and, to my relief, didn't bother me. I continued listening, waiting for them to leave. They entered the door at the end of the hallway. The boiler room.

"Guys," I whispered into my earpiece. "There's someone down here."

" _Avoid them,"_ Anon told me.

" _Nah. Tell them you got lost going to the-"_

" _Shut it, Loki,"_ Rin scoffed. " _Almost to the bottom floor. I'll be crossing the street in thirty seconds. Let me know when they leave."_

I nodded. Then, realizing that they couldn't see me, "Okay." Much quieter now, I continued putting my outfit on. Once I had looped my belt on, I jumped at the sound of the boiler room door being thrown open. It struck the wall with a deafening sound, and the footsteps had turned into a full out sprint down the hall. My heart nearly stopped.

 _What are they-_

" _Helgi."_ Rin sounded through my ear again. " _Update."_

"They're… they're gone. But-"

" _On my way."_

After hiding the contents of my bag on the cleaning cart, I cautiously opened the door, looking from side to side down the hall. There was no sign of life, but the door to the boiler room stood ajar. Beyond the door, the lights were off. I could hear the hum of the machines in the room. They were loud. Just like the generator at home. The open door looked almost menacing, like an open jaw calling me inside. We had been on the mission for only a few minutes.

But something felt _really_ wrong.

Taking one last glance down the hall, I left the cart in the door to the lockers and jogged down to the boiler room.

The lights were off, but from the light in the hallway, I could see shadows of massive machines towering above me. The room was almost as big as the lobby, with dirty concrete floors and plain white walls. Steel beams thicker than the hundred-year-old trees that stood around our base lined the corners of the room. With the lights off, I narrowed my eyes at a dim red glow set on them.

I stepped into the room. It was _hot_.

" _Entering the lobby,"_ Rin updated.

The closer I stepped, the more suspicious I became. The red glow was a small circle of light, slowly fading in and out as it flashed periodically. As I walked closer, I caught sight of black straps holding the contraption in place.

 _A temperature gauge?_ I guessed. _Would make sense. Wouldn't want this place overheating. The explosion would-_

My mouth dropped open. The red light wasn't a circle at all. It was a screen. With a timer. Strapped to the skeleton of the entire building.

 _They had sprinted out of the room-_

There was a screen on it. _29:02. 29:01. 29:00. 28:59._

"Guys," I said, staring at the bomb and my blood run cold.

" _What's up?"_ Kanon answered.

"We need to get out of here. Now."

Rin sighed. " _This isn't the time for you to get cold feet-"_

"There are bombs in the boiler room."

Silence.

" _What was that, Helgi?"_ Anon asked.

"Bombs. In. The. Boiler. Room."

More silence.

" _I'm coming,"_ Rin finally said, her breathing uneven.

"We need to leave-"

" _Sorry, Helgi. But I really don't believe you. It's probably something to keep the place for overheating. I'll take a look,_ " she said casually.

"That's what I thought, but-"

An opening door echoed through the hallway, followed by soft footsteps on the stairs. For a terrifying moment, I thought I had been caught. With bombs.

" _In the hallway._ " Her voice echoed through my ear, and behind me.

I turned, sprinting out of the room, and looked at her frantically. In her sleek back uniform, she wore her usual calm and collected demeanor. "Let me see," she said, rolling her eyes at me and pushing into the boiler room. I pointed to the wall. She walked over to it.

 _This whole building._ I thought with growing horror. _This building we were standing in right then. All the people up top. All the clerks, the businesspeople, the guards, the target-_

" _Update, Kára?"_ Yuma asked. His voice was tense.

Rin paused in the room behind me, then turned, her walking doubling in speed. "Get your shit off the cart," she told me tensely as she pushed past me. "Loki. We need pickup. Now."

" _You're fucking kidding,"_ Kanon said.

"No. I'm not. He's right. We have half an hour to get the fuck out of this city before this entire building is grounded."

Voices erupted into my earpiece.

" _Who did this?"_

" _Did the client set us up?"_

" _What the fuck-"_

" _What about the client?"_

I frantically shoved all of my belongings into my bag and threw it over my shoulder. Rin didn't even bother putting on a janitor's outfit. I would have been embarrassed at my clothes had my life, and the lives of the hundreds of people in this building, not been in danger.

Rin had reached the bottom of the stairs. I ran after her. My hands clutched at my bag. I was trembling in my shoes.

"Loki. Extraction. Where is the closest place you can pick us up?" She asked. Her voice never betrayed her calm mood. But her movements were robotic and unpredictable. She was scared, too.

" _P-probably at the top of Bruno's building. Can you get there in time?"_

"We'll have to." Rin led the way to the first floor. We skirted the lobby. My mind was racing, looking over the people working, smiling, talking in the lobby. The people who had no idea that-

"Keep moving," Rin called over to me. She seemed to have abandoned all hope of being discreet, instead frantically trying to get us out of here.

" _Who the fuck did this?"_ Kanon nearly screamed into her earpiece. " _There is no way this is a coincidence. They know we're here."_

" _You don't think it's Meiko, do you?"_

"No," Rin said as we walked up the stairs to the second floor. "We've never betrayed her, we've made her millions, and she's not stupid enough to throw an entire building full of people into the mix. It can't be her."

" _This is gonna be all over the news,"_ Anon pointed out, worried. " _There's gonna be an investigation. The cameras are out, right? Right?!"_

" _Yes!"_ Her sister answered. " _They're out. But eyewitnesses may still take note of you guys. Be careful."_

"They don't know our names," Rin said. We crossed the floor briskly. It was an office floor. There were cubicles full of people staring intently at their computers. A few people glanced up at us but didn't look again. With every face, I felt like a bullet was shooting through me.

" _You guys can hit the client on the way-"_ Kanon suggested. Like the rest of us, she was desperate for our money.

"No time," Rin said, casting accusatory glances around the room. "The… It'll take care of him. We need to get out of here, now."

Each person had their workspace decorated with everything from stickers to bobbleheads. Almost everyone had a picture frame sitting before them. Parents, grandparents, friends, wives, husbands. Kids. _Oh God._ I resisted the urge to lean against the wall and puke. I felt sick.

Rin didn't notice. Still ahead of me, she pushed open a heavy steel door. In front of us was a winding staircase. She began jogging up them.

I wanted to ask about the elevator, but if I opened my mouth, I knew I was going to puke. So I kept it shut.

What I should have asked about was the number of floors in this building. Every two flights of stairs there was a number hanging on the wall both in Chinese characters and English numbers. At floor twenty-two, I was beginning to get worried.

 _Has it been half an hour yet?_ I asked, almost expecting the floor to explode straight under my feet. I checked my watch. It had been three minutes. Three minutes that felt like three years. I could picture exactly how it would happen. Those on the lower floors might make it out in time. But the upper floors… they would hear a giant _boom_ from the lobby, maybe feel the building shake a bit as the very structure of it was destroyed in a single second. There would be fires. The sprinkler system would go off. And then the building would lose balance. Not only would the people working here be affected, but whoever it fell onto-

I closed my eyes, feeling tears brimming in them. My legs were aching. I felt like I could already smell the smoke.

I slipped on a stair and landed on the ground with a grunt.

Rin stopped. "Helgi, come on!" She continued to use my code name while her earpiece was broadcasting. She retreated the last few stairs, crouching next to me and pulling up my arm. "We need to go!" She wailed.

"All these people," I said softly.

"Let's go."

I let her pull me to my feet, and we resumed climbing.

There wasn't another soul in the staircase. Everyone else had, smartly, opted to take the elevator. I was a mess of sweat by the thirtieth floor, my bag painfully dragging at my shoulder and my feet growing heavier with each step.  
"How… many… more…" Despair, sickness, and exhaustion welled in me. I had never, in my entire life, felt that consumed by the stress of the situation. Most of the soon-to-be-lost lives were below us, now.

Rin wasn't doing too good, either. "There are forty-four floors," she said in a single breath. Her lead on me was diminishing. Fatigue weighed in her as well. "How long… how long has it been?"

I looked at my watch again, keeping one hand on the railing for balance. "Seven minutes." I'd been sprinting up the stairs for seven minutes. The timer had twenty-three minutes left. Hundreds of people would die in twenty-three minutes.

" _We're on the building,"_ Yuma stated. " _Where the hell are you guys?"_

"Almost… there," Rin choked out. The thirty-sixth floor passed us. The thirty-seventh. The thirty-eight.

 _Fuck,_ I thought. _The guards._ I had completely forgotten about them.

"K…" I gasped, barely remembering to call Rin by her codename. "The guards-"

"Fuck," she cursed. Fortieth. Forty-first, forty second…

Finally, after an eternity, we burst from the door. The hallway in front of us was completely plain, except for a single door leading to our target's office. Outside stood security, exactly as I had pictured them. Both pairs of eyes were trained on us. Across the hall was the final door to the roof. We just had to get past them.

"Hey! What are you two-"

Rin didn't waste any time, pulling her baton out of her bag, and dashing at the two of them. The fleeting thought came to me that I had never fought anyone other than her and the other's before, and this was for real. I pulled out my baton, whipping it open, and followed after her.

Their first instinct was to pull out their handguns, which we immediately knocked out of their hands by Rin's lightning-quick movements. She whipped one of the men in the wrist, sending the weapon flying down the hallway, and then did the same with the other. I joined in the fight just after that.

The janitor clothes and the duffle bag through off my balance greatly. Rin fought one, while the other turned to me. I swung for him without hesitation.

I landed one good strike on the side of the head, earning a curse from him as he reached to grab my weapon. Jumping away, I whapped another hit on his side, where he howled in pain once more and kneeled into the wall. With a quick leap, I tried to dodge past him, while also avoiding Rin's opponent who was throwing punches in her direction, but I was too slow. My exhaustion from the stairs had caused me to lose my skill. He was able to grab the baton, snapping it in half as I tried to pull away from him.

I found myself on the opposite side of the guards with the stairs behind me. While my foe stood from the ground, Rin's caught her. She breathed in quickly as the man grabbed the collar of her shirt, lifting her off the ground and throwing her into the wall. I watched helplessly as her expression contorted into pain. She hit the wall with a sickening _pop_. The guard held her there.

" _Fuck!_ " She screamed. Her left shoulder was normal, but her right stuck out at an odd angle. Her right arm hung limply beside her. He had dislocated it.

 _There is a bomb below me right now._ I picked up on of the discarded pistols and took aim at his head.

I pulled the trigger without even thinking.

The bullet went in one ear and out the other, and the man dropped Rin, falling to the side.

"What-" the other guard began, but he didn't get the chance to finish before I shot him, too.

Rin sat on the ground, her eyes clenched shut, her body quaking, and sweat dripping from her brow. "Fuck," she muttered again. "Fuck."

Staring at the guards next to her, I threw the pistol on the ground as if it burned my hand. "Come on," I said.

" _What's happening?"_ Anon yelled. " _Are you guys okay?"_

Neither of us answered. Instead, I grabbed Rin's good arm, helping her rise from the floor, and we crossed the hall to the stairs.

We burst out onto the roof seconds later. Sure enough, the helicopter was parked on the helipad. Yuma was in the front seat. Anon and Kanon stood at the door, their gazes snapping to us.

We limped across the helipad, Rin leaning heavily on me. The girls helped her into the vehicle. I gently removed her bag from her shoulder and threw both of our duffles in before jumping in myself.

Rin collapsed into a chair, her eyes closing. Anon sat next to her.

"We in!?" Yuma called, his voice barely audible through the spinning blades.

"Yes!" Kanon screamed.

"Let me look at your arm-"

" _No!"_ Rin wailed. "Do not fucking touch me."

Anon didn't take Rin's harsh words personally. Her voice remained gentle. "We need to pop it back in-"

" _I will throw myself out of this helicopter before I let anyone fucking touch my arm!"_ She screamed in response.  
Anon took a seat. She didn't try again.

I sat fearlessly next to the open doors as the building disappeared from below us. Yuma only pulled us a couple of feet off of the building before veering to the right, taking us north.

 _All those people,_ I thought. _I'm personally responsible for two._

I expected to feel sick again. Surprisingly, I didn't. Not for the guards, no. But for the civilians. My grief was almost overshadowed by my relief that Rin and I had escaped. Almost.

As Yuma slowly pulled us away from the live building, I caught a glimpse into the CEO's office.

"Yuma!" I called, not really knowing what I was doing. "Stop!"

"What? Why?"

"Turn us to the left a little bit!" I reached for Rin's bag.

"What are you-"

"Just do it!"

Rin was either unconscious or deafened with pain. Anon and Kanon watched from their seats as I pulled out the parts to the rifle. The wind from the blades ruffled my hair wildly.

"What are you doing?" Kanon yelled.

"I'm taking the shot!"

" _What?!"_ Both sisters yelled in unison.

"You have to trust me!"

Kanon looked appalled. "No! There's no way you can make that shot! The last thing we need is another alerted target-"

"Kanon," Anon said thoughtfully. "If he misses, the bombs will just take him out."

She looked wildly between her sister and I. "But… but-"

I was already assembling Rin's gun.

I had seen her do it many times, and Flower had taught me to put together similar rifles before, but the pressure of the situation left my hands trembling. Not to mention I was kneeling on the floor of a helicopter, next to an opened door that led to a _very_ long drop to certain death. I had to rub the sweat from my hands on my shirt several times to ensure I wouldn't drop any key parts.

The sisters watched silently as I worked. Even Rin's eyes had opened just a bit, looking down at me from where she was strapped in safely. I couldn't look at her long without my stomach lurching at the unnatural sight of her shoulder.

Before even I knew it, the gun was in my hands, ready to go.

 _No pressure or anything,_ I thought to myself as I rolled onto my stomach. The opened bag sat next to me. I pulled a single bullet out of it.

Inserting it into the chamber, I pulled the bolt back and peered through the scope.

It took a second of searching, but I found the office. Bruno was the only one in his office. His back was to the window as he shuffled through an endless pile of papers on his desk.

I tried desperately to aim the perfect shot at his head, but the helicopter swung wildly, often throwing my shot off. "Can you keep this thing _still?_ " I yelled.

"Oh, gee, I'll fucking try! You wanna drive?" Was Yuma's only response.

We were all a little stressed out.

 _I can't aim with this movement,_ I realized hopelessly. _I'll just have to time it perfectly._

Through the scope, the helicopter caused my vision to waver in a predictable manner. I held the gun steady. The crosshairs passed over his head once, then twice, then three times, then four-

On the fifth, I pulled the trigger.

For an unending second, nothing happened. And then, peering through the scope, my mouth dropped open as blood appeared on the desk, and his figure fell limp after it.

"Holy shit," Kanon said. I jumped at the sound of her voice. She had left her seat and was standing over me, binoculars in her hand. "You fucking did it. You fucking did it."

"He hit it?!" Anon's voice grew excited.

"Yuma, get us out of here!" Kanon yelled. She looked down at me. "You fucking did it," she repeated, disbelief in her eyes. "How-"

"Flower is gonna be _so proud_ ," Anon laughed, suddenly giddy with excitement.

"You were born to do this shit!" Yuma laughed from the driver's seat.

But my job wasn't done yet. Setting the gun down on the bag and pushing it to the back of the helicopter so it wouldn't fall out, I searched frantically through my bag until I found what I was looking for. I tore open the plastic baggie and yanked the flip phone out of it.

"What are you-"

"What's the Chinese number for 911?" I asked.

They stared at me blankly.

"What the fuck is it?!" I was still filled with tension.

Our earpieces were off. "Len, we don't want to-"

"It's 110 for the police," Yuma called from the driver's seat.

I punched the number in and rose the phone to my ear.

A male voice answered in Chinese. I didn't understand a word they were saying, but before they could even finish, I cut them off with the address of the building. It had been ingrained in my mind before we even left Montana. "There are bombs in the boiler room in the basement," I said, trying to keep my voice slow for understanding. "Active bombs in the basement! They should have about twenty minutes until they go off. Please, _please_ hurry."

The voice began to say something, in English, I realized hopefully, but I ended the call, closing the phone, and throwing it out of the open door.

The five of us sat in silence as the helicopter flew further and further away from the city.

My blood was still pumping in my ears half an hour after we took flight. My ears were ready for the smallest _boom_ in the distance, but none came. We were probably too far away, anyway. I still hadn't bothered moving to the safety of a seat. I sat in front of the door with my legs crossed, staring intently at the passing scenery. For a long time, the only sound was the rhythmic beat of the helicopter blades and Rin's heavy breathing. She was still clutching her arm painfully.

"We lived," Anon suddenly said. "And we eliminated the target."

"Mission complete," Kanon said softly next to her.

Yuma looked over his shoulder at me. "I didn't know assassins were supposed to _save_ lives, Len!" He said with a smile.

"Do you think they got to them in time?" I asked, my elbows resting on my knees and my hands joined in front of my face. We had reached the countryside. Endless hills of green expanded underneath us.

No one answered.

"Let's just get home," Yuma said. "I'm sure Flower has already heard about the entire thing."

"I just… I couldn't let them all die-"

"Len," Anon silenced me. "No one is giving you shit. You did the right thing."

 _I killed three and hopefully saved many more._

Rin wore a small smile in the seat next to me.

* * *

 _Len is too good of a person to kill people. What a babe._

 _Thanks for reading guys :)_


	11. Chapter 11

"You motherfuckers," Flower's voice called from the main room as the door to our base opened. "Have some explaining to do."

Anon had insisted on popping Rin's shoulder back into place before we reached the airport, promising to treat her more carefully once we reached home. Despite our two days of rest at the China base before we left the country, my eyes were still heavy with exhaustion. My legs were sorer than they had ever been and my mind still muddled from the stress of the entire situation.

"Let Len tell you," Yuma said, throwing his bags down on the table. He sat in one of the chairs across from Flower, kicking his feet up on the table. "It's quite the tale."

"Bombs?!" Flower exclaimed. "Where in our plan did we discuss bombs?"

"It wasn't us," Anon said. "Len found them in the basement." She glanced at me. "Tell her, Len."

"Did they go off?" I asked Flower. The five of us had had no contact with the outside world since my phone call, except for the airport. And we couldn't check the news there.

She shook her head. "No. Someone called it in. All the stories say they were only seconds away from going off before the bomb squad arrived. I think they're just trying to be dramatic, but you'll know better than me."

Despite my general misery, a grin overcame me.

I took a deep breath. Reliving the event wasn't something I was particularly keen on doing, especially when I was still sore and fatigued from the whole thing. Nevertheless, I sat in one of the chairs and explained everything from the person running through the hall to the boiler room to calling the authorities.

"It was _you_ ," Flower nodded as she listened to my story. "You called the police."

"Yeah," I confirmed. "It was me."

"Who could have planted those bombs?" Kanon asked. We had all taken our seats around the table.

"Someone knew we were there," said Rin. "Someone who wants us gone."

A silence fell over the table. Luka's name hung in the air. No one even needed to say it.

"But… but how would she know?" Anon suggested in a soft voice.

"You don't think Meiko-"

"I'm _not_ listening to anything that bashes Meiko. She's helped us way too long, and she has no reason to betray us like this. It can't be her." Rin's voice was harsh. "But Luka… I could see her doing it."

I had known very little of this girl, but if she was willing to detonate bombs underneath a building filled with hundreds of people, I wasn't interested in being friends.

"How else could she have found us?" Kanon reasoned. "How else could she have known-"

"She must have been the client," Rin said.

Kanon leaned back in her chair, considering her words.

"Think about it," Rin continued. "Who just has ten million dollars sitting around? She didn't care about the target. _We_ were the target."

"But she already paid Meiko-" Kanon began.

"Exactly. She paid Meiko to unwillingly send us off to our death."

Kanon was unconvinced, but she closed her mouth and said nothing more.

"It makes sense," Rin said. "She would go through Meiko because she would be able to stay anonymous. Instead of contacting us directly. We would have known it was her. She must have sent one of her guys to plant the bombs while Len was in the basement."

It made sense to me.

Flower frowned. "She found us before we found her."

"We need to warn Meiko," Rin concluded. "She could be in danger, too. What if Luka's trying to take out every-"

"Guys, guys, guys," Yuma interrupted. "Why are we talking about this now?" His gaze turned to Flower. "Did we get the money?"

Her intense gaze was softened, and she smiled. "It was deposited yesterday morning."

"We're _millionaires!_ " Yuma yelled. "Can we save the shitty business stuff for _after_ our celebration?"

The girls exchanged glances. I didn't wait for them to make up their mind.

"Where are the drinks in this place?" I asked Yuma with a grin.

He pointed at me. "I knew there was a reason we decided not to kill you. Come on! They're in the kitchen."

Flower jumped from the table and followed us.

We emerged from the kitchen, carrying bottles of alcohol and individual glasses for everyone, a few short minutes later. Rin and Anon had taken the time to break off from the group and check over her injured shoulder in the infirmary. When we emerged, I cast a glance in their direction. Rin was in a sling. She looked extremely unhappy about it.

"Who wants what?" I asked, the bottles in my arms clinking together softly once I set them on the table. It was already nearly nine o'clock. I was jet-lagged and tired. But sleep could wait for a few celebratory drinks.

Anon and Rin joined us not too much later. In a few minutes, everyone had finished their first glass except for Rin.

"Come on!" Kanon said, her tense mood from earlier completely forgotten as she waved her empty glass at the girl. "Take a drink with us."

"I don't feel like it," Rin responded. "Plus, _one_ of us has to stay sober. Just in case."

Kanon waved a hand dismissively. "You're just mad your arm is hurt."

She shrugged in response. "Won't be able to shoot for a while."

"You won't _have_ to!" Yuma said as he poured another glass. "With this money, we could live in this luxurious bunker for years! Many, many years."

"But that's not who we are," she countered.

"Well," Yuma concluded, bringing his glass to his lips. "Guess Len here will have to take the shots for you." He took a sip and slammed his glass down on the table. "Can we talk about that fucking _shot?_ How? How did you hit that?"

I had been quietly enjoying my drink before Yuma yelled at me to join the conversation. "I just… I just aimed. And shot."

Flower grinned. "Aim and shoot. I've taught you well."

"That's all there is to it." Although Rin wasn't partaking in the drinking, she was still enjoying the lightened mood. "Aim and shoot."

"What I wanna know is how did you manage to put that gun together in the helicopter without losing any parts?" Flower asked, bringing her glass to her lips.

As the minutes ticked by, the topics of our conversation slowly became more and more abstract. I couldn't help but notice Rin's amusement as her friends around her gradually descended into their drunken stupor.

"No no no, you don't understand-" Yuma argued passionately with Flower. "It's fucking _Robin._ He's a natural badass."

"He had no powers!" Flower argued, her voice full of emotion. "How could he lead the Teen Titans with no powers? Starfire and Raven could have beat the guys into a pulp. One of them should have done it."

"He had no powers, yes. But he _still_ managed to lead a ragtag team of teenage superheroes."

Kanon scoffed. "Barely! Raven was fucking half-demon and _died_ in season four after her demon-Dad who she _shares her powers with_ literally took over the entire world-"

"And Robin saved her," Yuma responded with a smirk.

Rin and I watched the conversation bounce across the table like a tennis match. She was grinning now. At the occasional amusing remark, she would giggle softly.

"What about Starfire? She's an alien Princess. Shoots lasers out of her eyes and shit. She would destroy him."

"He saved her too!" Yuma rose his voice. "You guys are just bashing my boy Robin here when he's the backbone of the entire team! There's a reason he's the leader!"

"The girls are way too strong for them. They could beat Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg into the ground at the same time," Flower said, slurring her words slightly as she tapped her hand decisively on the table. Anon and Kanon nodded in agreement.

"They can't even beat Robin! They prove it in the first season! Did you guys forget that Slade took him in-"

"Terra's the best," Anon pointed out. "You can't change my mind."

"Well she's _dead,_ Anon! We're talking about relevant characters, now!"

Anon leaned forward. "She's not dead! The last fucking episode of season five, remember? They go to the cavern and her statue is gone-"

Rin and I exchanged glances as an uproar of arguments erupted on either side of us. She grinned at me. I chuckled.

Things continued this way for a long, long time.

"You three can argue all you want," Flower said, pushing her chair from the table and standing with a slight wobble. "But I'm set in my ways. Raven and Starfire _are_ the Teen Titans. No one could reasonably beat them."

Yuma opened his mouth to protest, but Flower cut him off.

"Either way, I'm fucking tired, and I'm going to bed. Night." She glanced victoriously down at Yuma as she passed him, exiting into the living area.

"Yeah," Anon agreed, stretching her arms over her head. "I'm with Flower. It's late, and I'm tired." She glanced at Rin. "Careful with that shoulder, okay? Try not to sleep on it."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine."

"Good." Anon disappeared into the hall after Flower.

The second they left the room, the argument was over and another conversation took its place. This one was calm and collected, the opposite of before, and even Rin and I took part in it.

"I found the others," Yuma explained. "Because I had worked with Rin on a bunch of her contracts when she was solo."

"Solo?" My eyes widened at the girl. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah. I helped her a bunch. We had this one mission - aw, shit, do you guys remember this one? - It was our first hit as a team, and it was this big politician guy-" Yuma went into a rant, recounting how the five of them, six at the time, had decided to work together on the contract of a lifetime.

I listened, amused. "How long ago was that?"

His brow furrowed. "Hmmm. I think I was, like, sixteen or something."

" _Sixteen?_ " When I was sixteen, all I worried about was grades and that cute girl who sat behind me in algebra. I could never imagine plotting an assassination.

Yuma shrugged. "Rin was fourteen. She's the one who killed the guy."

I shot her an amazed look. She shrugged once again.

"I think that's why we got along so well," Yuma continued. He swirled the remaining liquor in his cup as he spoke. "It's not often to find kids ruling the Black Market."

"That's crazy," I exclaimed. "Like, when I was sixteen-"

Kanon laughed, holding a hand up. "Len, no offense, but I don't want to know."

A chuckle ran through the room and Kanon finished off her glass, standing. "I'm beat, too. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Rin nodded to her as she passed.

"Night guys," Kanon said sleepily. And, as she passed him, "Night, Yuma."

"Good night," he answered.

I waited until she was out of the room, then smiled deviously. " _Night, Yuma,_ " I mocked in my best girl voice, batting my eyelashes at the boy.

He rolled his eyes. "Shut the fuck up."

"What was that about?"

"Nothing," he responded, looking away.

My grin only grew wider. "That was _not_ nothing."

"It was nothing," Yuma insisted.

"Then why are you getting so defensive?"

"Len, I swear-" He cut himself off, casting a hopeless glance at Rin. He expected her to help him out.

She didn't. Rin, _sober_ Rin, nonetheless, giggled once again. "That _was_ a pretty suggestive _Night, Yuma._ "

"Okay, fuck you guys, I'm going to bed."

I erupted into laughter along with Rin as he stood from the table, and stomped out of the room.

"And then there were two," I said once our laughter died down.

"I figured they'd go to bed early. It's been a long week."

"Understatement of the year." I leaned back in my chair once more.

She sat in the seat across the table, one hand folded neatly in her lap and the other dropping out of her sling. "Yeah. That one was… rough."

"I'm sorry about your arm."

She smiled. "It's fine. It would probably be way worse if you weren't there."

The room was wavering slightly before my eyes. My arms felt warm from the alcohol, and the painful soreness in my legs was numbed. I rubbed at my eyes in an attempt to clear my muddled mind. "I'm still sorry."

"Don't be." She stared down at the table.

"...for everything," I concluded.

Her brow furrowed slightly. "What-"

I wasn't that drunk, but I felt like I needed to talk to her about this and I knew I could use the alcohol as an excuse. "I know about your guys'... _thing_ in LA. With Luka."

She tensed at the name.

"And I know why you were there. And I know how important it probably was to you. And not only did I fuck it up, but I also might have thrown you guys under the bus with her, and now everyone's in danger, and I'm just-" I cut myself off. I knew I was treading on thin ice, and I avoided saying his name, but I knew Rin was devastated at their failed attempt to avenge the ex-assassin. "-I'm just sorry."

Those blue eyes of hers blinked a few times as she tried to find words.

"I kinda… like, I just messed everything up. And I'm trying really hard to fix it, even though I know I can't, you know? So… yeah. I'm sorry." I let out a deep breath, feeling a weight come off of my shoulders.

Rin said nothing.

I continued sipping at my glass, deciding that it would be my final drink. Training would no doubt resume tomorrow, and although I had officially entered the "Assassin" category, I knew there was still much to learn. Everyone would be up before me and I didn't want to be late.

"You didn't know," Rin finally said, pulling my thoughts back to the present. "How could you have? It's not your fault you just… went home."

She was right, but I still couldn't help but feel some sort of guilt. "Yeah, but-"

She shook her head. "You didn't know."

The dismissive tone in her voice told me that this conversation was over.

We went to bed a few minutes later.

* * *

 _If you can't tell, Raven and Starfire are my favorite Teen Titans._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	12. Chapter 12

"So where's the Canadian base?"

"It's… that's the island one, right?"

Yuma nodded. "Yeah. But what's it called?"

"Uh… shit," I racked my memory. "Biticho? Bestio?"

"Bistcho," he corrected with a grin.

"Yeah, that one. And then the island is Kirkness. That's where it is."

"But it's on a lake. How do you get to it?"

"It's frozen most of the year, right?"

He grinned. "Correct. China. Where is it?"

I sighed. The unfamiliar names always confused me. "It's… it's in the middle. The… uh, the _something_ province."

"What province?" Yuma watched me with amusement.

I leaned back in my chair. "It starts with an H."

"Yes," he confirmed.

"It's like… Hoo, hoo-something," I concluded.

"Come on, dude. You know it."

"Hubei!" I yelled out. "And the mountains are the… the _Wudang_ ," I nodded proudly.

He chuckled at me. "Where in the mountains?"

 _Shit._ "It's, like, right below the temple on the main mountain, right?"

"What's it called?"

"The Wudang."

He nodded. "You're getting better. Last one! UK. Where is it?"

I let out an exasperated sigh. That part of the world always confused me. In a continent with so many countries in near proximity, they didn't have a base in every country. They had multiple ones scattered throughout. "Gimmie a second."

"Take your time. You're just running for your life from an assassination gone wrong. You have plenty of time."

We were, in fact, sitting in the main room of our base, completely casual and relaxed. But Yuma found it important that I learn every country's base for that exact scenario.

I stared blankly at the wall. "It's in England. I know that."

"You're right. Where, though?"

"...Northern?"

"Yup."

"This is the one with that, like, super British-sounding name, right?"

Yuma laughed once again. "I guess so."

As I pondered the answer, Rin appeared in the hallway. "Len. Come on. We're leaving."

"What? Why?"

She had the car keys in her hand. "Flower drank too much last night and we need groceries. Nothing too exciting. Come on."

It had been a couple days since we had returned from China, but the celebrations were far from over. We repeated our activities every night since we returned. But, with Flower out for the day, I had a feeling last night was the final one.

"Then… then why do I have to go?"

"Because I'm scared you're going to go crazy from not being in public, considering you grew up in LA and all." It sounded like a joke but she looked dead serious. "And I'm gonna need help carrying all these bags.

Yuma's shoulders slumped. "Where's your sling?"

"I'm not wearing the fucking sling," she muttered grumpily.

"You really should-"

"Len. Let's go."

He sighed. I gave him a hopeless look and stood from the table.

"Kettlewell," he called as we ascended the stairs. "It's hidden in the hills east of Kettlewell."

I cursed under my breath. I _knew_ that.

The hike to Flower's Hummer was like second-nature to me now. Every time we made the trip, it seemed shorter, though it was a good forty-five minutes before the giant car came into view.

"Where are we going?"

"There's a town not too far away with a grocery store," she answered, pulling open the door and jumping inside. I resisted the urge to laugh as her small form took control of this tank of a car.

* * *

Rin's definition of "not too far" was a little different from mine.

We finally arrived at our destination nearly an hour and a half later. We had driven west, which was unfamiliar to me. Every other time I had left the base, we had traveled to the airport on the eastern side. Despite this, Rin seemed to know exactly where she was going.

And exactly where to park the car. She stopped at the border to the city. Missoula.

We found ourselves walking quite a long distance to the supermarket. I suddenly understood why she wanted the help. To keep the car's license plates off camera, she was forced to park it a very long distance away. Long enough to turn an hour long grocery trip into a big ordeal.

"Why here?" I asked. It was a large city bordered by rolling mountains on all sides.

"It may not look like it," she began, walking closer to me as pedestrians began to stroll by. "But there's a surprisingly low amount of cameras in this city. It's a great place to be discreet."

I nodded. My gaze had wandered to the mountains around us. It was the middle of summer, and the green scenery of the town took my breath away. Pine trees, freshly cut grass, not to mention the gentle curve of the green hills around us. Even the air smelt fresh and green.

"This place is awesome," I observed.

"Yeah," she answered. "It's okay."

"Do you come here a lot?"

"Not really. It's Flower's job. Not mine." We had been walking down the sidewalk following the main street through the town. Broadway. "Let's turn here," she suggested, leading us to a side road. "I don't like being out in the open like this."

"You're the boss," I said, stepping after her.

She had ditched the sling barely twenty-four hours after Anon assigned it to her. She walked fine, though her arm did seem a little stiff. It worried me. "How's the arm?"

She scoffed. "You too? It's fine. There's nothing to worry about."

"It sucks not being able to spar," I told her honestly. "I never thought I'd miss it."

Hints of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Yeah. It's pretty fun once you get good at it."

"Aw, did you just call me good?"

"Don't push it, jackass."

This new road led us away from the crowded highway and bordered and neighborhood. We turned right. The quaint houses stood on one side and an empty field stood to our left. The lots were occasionally occupied with buildings of all types, from auto shops to general stores.

"What about shooting?" I asked.

"What about it?"

"Are you okay to do it?"

The answer was no, and we both knew it, but she hesitated. "I… I don't know."

I frowned. She loved doing that, too.

The next building to come up looking like a huge warehouse, in much better shape than the one I had previously interacted with, clean yellow point adorning the walls, bordered by the silver shine of sheet metal forming the angled roof. There was a parking lot in front of it with only a few cars.

"I should be fine," she continued, trying to convince herself more than me. "It's not like it was broken or anything. And it doesn't even hurt."

The building had a sign in front of it. _The Hub._ There was smaller print below it but we were still too far away to read it clearly. "You should still be careful with it," I warned her. "Don't want to hurt it permanently."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm already getting the whole speech from everyone else. I don't need it from you, too."

A few steps later, the letters became clearer. Underneath the billboard for _The Hub_ read the words _Go-Karts, Arcade, Laser Tag, Food._

A grin formed on my face. "How about this," I said, stepping in front of her.

She paused her steps, furrowing her eyebrows at me.

"I don't think those games at the fair in Canada were… _accurate_ enough to determine the better shooter."

She put her hands on her hips. "What the hell does that have to do with-"

"- _That_ place," I interrupted her, pointing behind me to The Hub. "Let's go play some laser tag."

And then the girl uttered three words that I never expected to hear in the same sentence in my entire life.

"What's laser tag?"

My mouth dropped open, and my arm lowered to my side. "What," I asked in complete awe. "Did you just say?"

She crossed her arms, turning her face away from me. A blush rose to her cheeks. "Don't look at me like I'm an idiot, Len! I don't know these things!"

"Okay," I said, still staring at her with wide eyes. "Now we _have_ to go."

"We don't have time for your stupid games," she muttered, still refusing to look at me. I'd clearly struck a nerve.

"Don't you wanna shoot a gun?"

She didn't say anything.

Without waiting for her approval, I wrapped my fingers around her slender wrist (being extra sure to grab her good arm) and pulled her after me. "Come on. We're going."

She didn't say anything as I dragged her across the street, through the parking lot, and into the doors.

Despite the small number of cars in the parking lot, there were many little kids in there. Some running around the arcade games, some yelling in delight as they passed their friends on the Go-Kart track. There seemed to be a birthday party going on. There was the occasional parent, plus a fair amount of people in their teenage years or their early twenties, but kids predominately ruled the place.

"What is this place?" Rin asked in a small voice I had never heard before. Her usual confidence and authority wavered as her eyes scanned the walls. I was still holding her wrist.

"Come on," I said. "Laser tag is this way."

"Len, I really don't think-" I pulled her after me, cutting her off.

We arrived at the line just in time. Along with a few other people, mostly kids, we entered the prep room. The walls were black with small splatters of neon-colored paint, the carpet below us looking much the same. There was a TV hanging in the corner of the room. Red jackets hung on one side, green on the other.

"I don't know what I'm doing, Len," her eyes were low and her voice was almost pleading. Like she was begging me to leave.

"Just watch the TV," I reassured her over the roar of excitement around us. "They're gonna play a clip that'll tell you everything you need to know." I finally let go of her wrist. She gazed shyly around the room.

A young guy in a red shirt was running the game. After silencing the room, he turned the lights off and hit the _play_ button on the TV.

Thus began the video.

While most of the kids paid no attention to it, snickering and whispering under the eyes of the host, Rin watched the video intently. I had to suppress a laugh when I caught a glimpse of her thoughtful stare, watching the TV like it was another target she was supposed to plot against. The video itself didn't last any longer than three minutes. It seemed to me that Rin could recite the whole thing word-for-word after she finally tore her eyes from the screen.

"Go ahead and form your teams!"

We were standing right next to the green wall, so Rin lifted a vest from the wall and handed it to me.

I held my hands up in defense. "No, no, no. You're green. I'm red."

Her shoulders slumped. "What? Why? Shouldn't we be on the same team?"

I stepped away from her, grabbing a red vest from the wall. "Where's the fun in that?" I asked with a grin.

After fitting my vest, I walked back over to her. She did not look happy at all.

"Rin," I said in a low voice. "It's a game. It's okay to relax."

She looked up at me with those big puppy dog eyes and I almost felt guilty enough to leave. Then, her expression cleared, and she grabbed her toy gun and aimed it at me. "These aren't made for lefties," she joked.

They weren't. The line attaching the gun to the jacket ran across my entire body at a diagonal, threatening to completely entangle me. "I'll still win," I joked.

"Red team on this side, Green team on this side!"

Rin smiled, the heat of the competition finally reaching her. "I'll believe it when I see it," she yelled at me as I walked backwards to my line.

"Green team in first!" The host called, opening one of the double doors leading to the course. "We won't start until everyone is at their bases. Head on in."

With one last glance, Rin disappeared into the room, her gun positioned expertly in her hand.

This time, I didn't suppress my laugh.

My team was almost exclusively made up of little kids. They definitely had the upper hand. It didn't matter to me, though. I only had one target on that team, and, between the two of us, we were pretty evenly matched.

"Red team, in!" The host called. He sounded like a drill sergeant, the way he shouted orders like that.

I followed a bunch of ten-year-olds into the course.

The walls were all painted black. Purple neon lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room in a deep purple hue. Green Team's base sat against the wall directly to our right, with Red Team's being on the opposite. Between us was a maze of black walls, bordered in differently colored neon paint. There was a ramp from our base leading up to a small loft area, where there were even more obstacles to hide behind. Some of the walls had holes in them for sneak attacks, others were solid.

"Are both teams ready?" The host called over the intercom. I jumped a bit as my vest suddenly vibrated, like I had been shot, but only hinted that it was being activated. It glowed with a sudden green light.

There was a roar across the room of a bunch of kids and I cringed a bit at my own team's response.

"Go!" The voice called. It lacked the enthusiasm to match my excitement at facing Rin. Despite this, I shot off the wall, entering the game.

My first interaction with a member of the green team was a guy, so I turned away from him. The second was a little kid, and the third was a girl who was way too tall to be Rin. A little disappointed I was unable to find her on the main floor, I retreated back to my base to check the loft.

Just as I turned my back, I jumped as my vest vibrated. Looking over my shoulder, I caught sight of her grinning face before she disappeared behind cover.

I shook my head, a grin spreading across my face, and waited for my gun to reactivate before running after her.

There were other people, but I ignored them, catching only glimpses of her light flannel jacket rushing after her as she dodged through the corners. With a flash of excitement, I realized she had trapped herself in a corner. She didn't seem to have figured it out yet. Instead of following her, I sidestepped to the left.

She ran straight into me. She stumbled a bit at the impact, her eyes widening as she backed into the wall behind her.

I pressed my laser gun into her stomach and pulled the trigger. "Payback," I said, before running off.

"Dammit!" She laughed behind me, her footsteps beginning to echo after mine.

I managed to turn around at the perfect moment to get her again, eliciting another groan of frustration as I dodged off again. For a few seconds, I lost sight of her. Then she appeared out of nowhere with her gun to my back. 2-2. Throughout the match, the host called out a countdown. Seven minutes. Five minutes. Three. We battled it out in the loft, ignoring every other person we came across, dodging both screaming kids, adults, and each other.

I lost track of our score after a while.

"Thirty seconds!" The intercom called.

We had found ourselves on the ground floor once again. She was hiding behind a circular wall, pressed too closely against the wall for me to sneak around. With only a few seconds left, I felt a bout of confidence, suddenly surging forward to catch her by surprise. I paused once I wrapped around her cover, confused to see her not there.

Suddenly, my vest vibrated once again. To my left was Rin. The space between the cover and the wall was much too small for me to squeeze through, but not her.

She laughed, the sweet sound echoing through the room. "Get fucked, Len!"

I hoped any kids weren't nearby and grinned in response. That was our last gunfight before exiting the room.

My eyes took a moment to adjust to the light of the room. I followed everyone else's eyes to the TV screen, which had changed from the DVD to a scoreboard. Red Team was on the left, Green on the right. I looked down at my gun. _12_ was etched into the side.

"I'm three," Rin said, looking up at the screen. Another victorious smile adorned her face. "Most shots on my team. Get wrecked."

"I'm twelve," I said, looking up at the screen. On the green side, the number Twelve was on top. "Me too," I gloated, looking down at her. Next to our numbers were more stats, like our total kills, total deaths, and our "Nemesis." Rin was, obviously, my nemesis. But, through all the extra kills and deaths we each received from other members of the teams, there was no way to decipher who actually won and who lost.

"I definitely won," I said after I took off my vest and crossed the room to stand with her.

"Psh. You wish."

"You ready to go?"

She lifted the vest over her head, staring down at it.

"If you're playing the next game, you can stay in here!" The host called, opening the door to the lobby and revealing no line. Some kids exited through the door. No one entered.

She looked up at me expectantly.

"Can we play again?"

* * *

 _My little assassins are so cute._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	13. Chapter 13

"Again? Really?"

Anon and I had been reviewing the process of suturing a serious injury when Yuma had interrupted, insisting on another round of arm wrestling. Rin had appeared in the main room at just the right time to see me slam his hand down on the table.

"Yes!" I yelled in victory, leaning back in my chair. Anon waited patiently. Rin rolled her eyes.

"Dude, what?!" Yuma yelled. "How in the hell?"

With Rin and I's sparring put on hold, I had decided to fill the gap in my schedule with more weight lifting. It seemed to have paid off. "Guess _I'm_ the dominant one, now," I sneered.

Yuma shook his head. "I can't believe it. Rematch."

"I beat you fair and square."

"No! Rematch!" He seemed genuinely offended.

I sighed. "Fine. But only to stop your whining."

Rin shook her head, taking a seat next to me. "You're both dumb."

Anon watched the fight with an amused smile on her face.

We joined hands again, my elbow planted firmly on the table. "Three, two-"

The final number was drowned out by the sound of the front door opening. I looked over my shoulder, distracted from the game, as Flower and Kanon appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Each of them wore a frown.

"Meiko wants to see you," Flower said to Rin. "She said it's urgent."

Rin furrowed her brow. Once again, against Anon's wishes, she was not wearing her sling. "How urgent?"

"She wants you to meet her at a hotel in London tomorrow."

The girl next to me frowned. "Tomorrow? Why?"

Flower shrugged. "She wouldn't say. Just told me it was important."

Rin sighed. "Well… if it's that urgent-"

"I don't like it," Kanon said, crossing her arms. "I still think she had something to do with the contract. I don't like it at all."

As much as the others had tried to shake Kanon of her suspicions, there was no changing the girl's mind.

"Let us come with you," Kanon said.

"No," Flower shook her head. "Meiko would be put off by all six of us coming to see her. Just let Rin do it." She turned her attention to the girl. "She specifically asked that you come alone."

Kanon scoffed. "Now I _definitely_ think something is up."

"It's not new, Kanon, that she asks to see only me," Rin pointed out. Yuma and I watched the conversation, our contest completely forgotten.

Distressed, Kanon looked for anything to say. Her gaze traveled across the room, strained. "At least… at least take Len with you," she said.

Rin's shoulders slumped. "If she wants me to go alone-"

"Please?" She continued. "Just… just for my peace of mind. He doesn't have to go meet her. Just bring him with you. Please."

Rin glanced at me, our eyes meeting as she pondered her proposition. I didn't see a problem with the plan; I was more than happy to go with her. To be honest, sending her off alone, especially with her shoulder still hurt, worried me as well.

Breaking our eye contact, Rin looked over at Flower. "When do we leave?"

Kanon sighed in relief, but Flower frowned. After a pause, she answered. "Now. Go grab your stuff. And Len, if you're going, do _not_ let her see you. She won't be happy."

I nodded and stood from the table. "Okay."

Flower turned back towards the stairs. "Let's go."

* * *

It was a dreary day in London, England.

Clouds hung over the city malevolently, threatening rain but offering none. It was a cold spring day. And yet the city was still bustling with life.

There were no hotels during this trip, either. It seemed that all meetings with Meiko were brief and important. Rin and I carried our bags through the streets as we followed our printed directions to Meiko's hotel.

"What do you think it's about?" I asked her as we walked. The tall buildings surrounding us were overly familiar at that point. After so many cities, every single one felt the same.

She looked down at her map. "I don't know. But whatever it is, it's probably big." Her eyes gleamed with hope. "Maybe she found something on Luka."

"Does she know you guys are looking for her?"

"We've…" Rin looked for the right words. "We've asked Meiko about her often. Never told her any details, though. Maybe she finally found something for us."

I didn't like the unknown. With this mysterious trip, the entire city felt like it was closing in on us.

"This is it," Rin said, looking up at one of the buildings. "This is where she's staying."

The hotel was an architectural masterpiece. It was made up of two buildings, on either side of the car-filled street, joined together by an enclosed hallway with glass walls that hung multiple stories over us. Even from the ground, I caught sight of people walking between the two buildings.

"Damn," I said, craning my neck to see the top of the buildings. Beyond the walkway, they rose, mirror each other perfectly, high into the sky. _I wouldn't want to run up those stairs,_ I thought. My legs had just recovered from China and I wasn't too eager to pain them once again.

Rin veered to the right, pushing open the doors to the hotel. "Come on," she said, waving me after her. I followed.

This modern paradise was hidden in the traditional style of London's inner city. We walked past the check-in desk, ignoring the odd look of the employees, and stepped onto the elevator.

"Fifth floor, room 508," Rin repeated to herself. She turned to me. "Just… just walk around the floor or something. She's going to have guards in her room, but not outside. Whatever you do, do _not_ come in." She pulled out her earpiece from her bag. I did the same. "If anything happens, I'm going to leave this on," she told me, gently tapping it into her ear. "You'll be able to talk to me, but I won't be able to respond, okay?"

I nodded, putting my earpiece on as well. "Okay."

She sighed. "You'll be able to hear everything. I don't like spying on her, but I won't be able to turn it on and off without alerting her."

 _Meiko has her guards, but Rin has hers as well._ She didn't say it, but it was obvious to both of us why I was here. "Okay," I said once more.

"Do you have your gun on you?"

"Yeah." Was that even a question?

She frowned. "Do _not_ shoot anything. You'll alert the entire city if it goes off."

"Hopefully I won't need it."

No response.

The elevator doors dinged open, and we slipped into the empty hallway.

I followed her silently until she stopped in front of room 508. She cast me one last glance as I passed her, before knocking against the door. I continued down the hall without looking back. I heard the door open and then close shortly after.

It was hard to look casual in the middle of a hallway, so I found a vending machine that I could lean next to. It was in a small area split off from the hallway. My position offered a perfect view of my surroundings. I watched Meiko's door like a hawk.

Voices sounded in my earpiece. " _Meiko,_ " Rin greeted.

" _Rin._ " The older woman's voice was much quieter than Rin's, considering the earpiece was designed just to pick up the voice of the person wearing it. Everytime Meiko spoke, it was almost too soft to hear. Only the two of them exchanged words, but I knew there were many more people in the apartment. Guards.

I crossed my arms and I listened carefully.

" _What's going on?"_ Rin asked.

" _I have another contract for you,_ " Meiko responded. " _But this one is… a bit different._ "

" _How so?"_

Meiko said something else, but her response was too soft to make out. _That's okay. As long as Rin hears it._

" _What's her name?_ " Rin asked.

Once again, Meiko's response was too quiet to hear.

 _Everything is okay,_ I told myself. _It's just another contract._

Just as I was about to let out a deep, loud sigh, I nearly jumped as a figure appeared around the corner in the hallway. He past right by me, most likely unaware of my presence altogether, and continued towards the room.

I held my breath and watched him.

He was dressed in a hoodie and jeans. His back was to me and his hood was pulled up over his head. It was almost disturbing how quiet his footsteps were. Slung over his back was a backpack. It looked heavy.

He passed the door without a pause. But my suspicion did not wane. So, deciding Rin was safe enough in her room, I followed him.

It was hard keeping track of him. The layout of the hotel was unlike the traditional American hotels. Instead of a single straight hall, they were positioned in a grid on each floor. I was able to tail him at a distance, sometimes barely catching glimpses of him as he disappeared around a corner. It felt like we were walking in circles and I briefly wondered if he had somehow become aware I was following him. But, eventually, he took an unexpected turn towards the stairwell and pushed his way in.

I let the door close all the way before slowly and silently opening it, guiding it closed behind me.

In the stairwell, it was much harder for him to mask his footsteps. They echoed softly as he climbed the stairs above me. It would be impossible to walk without alerting him, so I tried my best to match his quickening pace, stepping only when he did. It seemed to work. I couldn't see him, but I heard him open a door above me and close it. The footsteps went silent.

We had only climbed three floors. I opened the door slowly, peering down the hall to see him walking to my right. The entire time, I heard Rin's conversation with Meiko. It seemed like a normal contract. Nothing to worry about. Especially compared to the person in front of me.

Once I turned the corner, I was startled to find the glass walkway stretched out in front of me. The clear walls on either side revealed London during its rush hour. Ahead of me walked the mysterious stranger, his hands in his pockets and his back still to me.

I wanted to stare out the windows longer but I had no time. _Should I tell Rin?_ Even if I wanted to advise her of the unknown person, I couldn't. Speaking at this point would draw his attention to me. Plus, it was probably nothing. A person walking around with a backpack was not uncommon in a hotel. If anything, I was just trying to pass the time. Rin was going to be occupied for a while.

" _Where can I find her?_ " Rin asked. My end was silent. As far as she knew, I was still perched up against that wall.

He veered left. I followed.

It took me off guard seeing an empty hall ahead of me. I caught a glimpse of a shutting door. Room 808.

I stopped in front of it, pressing my ear to the door.

There was shuffling. A zipper opened.

" _If she's so well protected, how are we supposed to get to her?"_ Rin asked.

" _...you to find out,"_ were the only words of Meiko's response I was able to make out. I tried to zone out their voices, listening to the door.

There was more shuffling. I heard a gentle _clink_ as something metal hit the floor. I could feel my heartbeat picking up.

" _And the people around her? What info do you have on them?"_ Rin asked.

The sounds emanating from the door were muffled, but audible. There was a louder _clink_ this time. I had heard these sounds before.

" _...how many are there?"_ Her voice sounded in my ear once again.

I had heard these sounds before.

I had heard these sound _many times_ before.

I reached for my bag, desperately digging around through the clutter for my keycard reader. Inside, the unmistakable sounds of someone assembling the parts of a gun continued.

It felt like eons before I finally found what I was looking for. With trembling hands, I inserted the card, waiting impatiently as machines decoded the key.

" _How much are we talking for this?"_ She asked.

 _Come on, come on,_ I thought, adrenaline starting to pump through me. On the opposite side of the street from the girls, a few floors higher, it was the perfect vantage point. I knew Meiko had a lot of enemies but this was not how I expected this trip to go. Weren't her guards supposed to be the ones saving her?

Finally, the screen flashed green. The sounds inside had stopped.

"Target in sight," a male voice said in the room. _He's talking to someone. He's-_

I threw the door open and felt an extreme rush of deja vu. Kneeling on the other side of the room was the person I had followed, a familiar-looking, large gun pressed against his shoulder. It was propped up with the barrel leaning out the window, pointing down. At its end was a suppressor.

He turned to me as I barged in. His eyes grew wide and he stood tall. The gun remained perfectly in place. Meiko was still at the other end of that barrel. "Who the fuck-"

Last time I had interrupted an assassination, I was caught completely in the open. This time, though, I was ready.

With my bag swinging wildly over my shoulder, I vaulted over the neatly-made bed, shoving the stranger against the glass of the window. He hit it with a _thud,_ his eyes narrowing in anger as he swung a fist at me. I ducked low to avoid it and pushed him into the glass once again. He let out a huff as the air escaped him. I struggled to keep him against the glass, reaching for the edge of the window to open it further, then gasped as I took a rough kick to the abdomen. I clutched at my stomach, falling to the ground.

I expected another blow but it never came. My assailant had fled the room, his running echoing through the halls.

Breathing heavily, I crawled towards the gun and peered through the scope.

I was half right. The gun was pointing directly into the window of a certain hotel room. The scope revealed the perfectly clear picture of Rin and Meiko, sitting across from each other, discussing their business. But the barrel was not pointing at Meiko. Not at all.

It was aimed directly into the back of Rin's head.

"K," I breathed out, barely remembering to address her with her code name. I saw her twitch a little bit in the room. "We've been set up." My stomach was killing me, and I glanced over my shoulder constantly to check if the guy had returned. He didn't.

Three floors below me, she tensed. " _Let's talk about our pay,"_ she said. Meiko nodded, her mouth moving but her words too soft to hear.

 _She doesn't believe me._ "K, I just followed a guy up to the eighth floor. He went into this random room, and I heard him putting a gun together. I scared him off... but I'm looking through the gun. He left it."

I couldn't see Rin's expression. Meiko narrowed her eyes. I could only imagine the color draining from Rin's face before her.

"It's aimed right at you," I finished, nearly gasping my words now. _I need Anon to look at this,_ I thought, grimacing at the idea of another stay in the infirmary.

The second the words left my mouth, Rin stood from her chair. The crosshairs now aimed at an empty seat.

" _Why are we here, Meiko?"_ Rin suddenly asked with a strained voice. I heard the conversation through my earpiece and watched it through the scope. I was careful not to put my hands anywhere near the trigger of the gun.

Meiko cocked her head to the side. " _For a contract-"_

Rin shook her head, cutting her off. " _Why. Are. We. Here?"_ She demanded.

Meiko hesitated, watching her with a careful eye. I was still shaking. _Rin's alone down there,_ I realized. _And I'm stuck up here._

With a gun.

I ran across the room, slamming the door shut and positioning a chair in front of the handle. Through my earpiece, I heard a growl of anger.

" _Bombs, Rin?!"_ Meiko yelled, her voice very clear. " _What the fuck were you thinking? That was all over the news! A contract that I was involved in was on National Television! What were you thinking?"_

I returned to the gun, pulling it firmly into my left shoulder and watching the scene carefully.

" _What?"_ Rin responded. " _That wasn't us! Someone planted those! The client set us up! I wanted to warn you-"_

" _Don't make me laugh, Rin!"_ Meiko was standing now, too. " _Why would my client pay that much money to have someone killed when they had the resources to do it themselves?"_

" _They set us up, I said!"_ Rin responded, clenching her fists. I examined the room around them as they argued. The door to the hall was directly to Rin's left. Two people stood in front of it. There were two more behind the couch on either side of Meiko. I had a feeling there were even more hidden from my sight. " _We're not stupid enough to use bombs to kill a client. I swear!"_ She was nearly pleading now.

Meiko crossed her arms. " _Luka told me about your little… attempt in LA._ "

Rin's shoulders slumped. " _You're… you're working with-"_

" _Of course I'm working with Luka! I'd be stupid not to! Do you know how much money she brings me in every month?"_

"I've got you covered," I assured Rin. "I've got you covered."

Despite my words, she looked terrified.

" _You…"_ Rin trailed off. " _You just tried to kill me."_

Meiko waved a hand at her. " _You're getting sloppy, Rin. I can't be associated with sloppy assassins. With you around, it's just a matter of time before they find me."_ She shrugged, and added: " _Don't take it personally."_

Rin shook her head. " _We've worked together for years-"_

" _Everything comes to an end eventually,"_ Meiko said. " _No one lives long in this business. See ya, Rin."_

The room erupted into motion in a second. The people standing around the couch moved to either side of Meiko, pulling her out of the room swiftly. The two standing near the door stepped towards Rin, and three others appeared around her.

I was thankful they had chosen a room with such a large window.

Careful not to hit Rin, I picked off one body standing behind her. The sound was reduced, though not completely eliminated. She jumped, watching with wide eyes as the guard slid to the ground, lifeless.

"I've got you covered," I said once again. Pulling my eye from the scope, I searched the room for ammunition. It was sitting next to me on the wooden floor. I grabbed a stray bullet.

I looked through the scope as I unloaded the shell and slid the new bullet in. Her bag sat at the foot of her chair. Furrowing her brow, she dodged for it, grabbing her baton out of her bag and extending it.

"Stay it in the window," I told her. "I can only see them through the window."

She didn't respond, but she swung wildly at the closest guard, dodging to her right. Her back was to me. They had her surrounded.

The ones behind her were the greatest threat but I was too scared to aim for another. I recognized this gun from Flower's teachings. Its power would certainly send the bullet through my target and straight into Rin's stomach. I wasn't eager to kill her.

Instead, I aimed at a person standing to her right and pulled the trigger. They dropped to the floor instantly.

Alarm raised in the guards once they realized what was happening. One of them dodged out of sight of the window, while another pulled Rin into a chokehold from behind her. I could hear her struggling to breathe in my ear. She elbowed the man in the side, her baton slipping from her fingers. He kneeled over in pain while Rin delivered a hard kick in his neck.

The two remaining guards, a man and a woman, charged at her from either side. I could only pick off the man in time. The woman grabbed the collar of Rin's shirt from behind, slamming her into the glass with enough force to make me cringe. A small bloodstain appeared on the now-cracked glass where Rin's head had hit it. She collapsed just as I landed my shot between the woman eyes.

"Rin," I said, looking through the scope and forgoing our codenames. The room was now motionless. "Rin?"

She didn't answer, nor did she move.

"Fuck," I muttered, standing tall. I glanced at the gun one last time with disgust before impulsively kicking it out of the open window. I left the room as it fell down to the sidewalk below.

I ran through the hallways once more, pushing past people and ignoring their angry calls in response. Dashing through the connecting walkway, I caught a glimpse of the city below us once more. There was already a crowd of people forming on the sidewalk where the gun had landed. The clouds above were darkening.

Three staircases later, I burst into the room.

"Rin!" I called, jumping over the lifeless bodies of the guards to get to her. Kneeling down, I turned her head to face me. Blood ran down her temple where her head had hit the window. Blood trickled down her face.

I desperately felt for a heartbeat, letting out a sigh of relief when I felt the steady pulse in her neck. The force of the impact was enough to knock her unconscious. But she was alive.

"Rin, wake up," I said, reaching for her shoulder and pausing. Shaking her awake was probably the worst thing I could do in this situation. Not only could I further injure her shoulder, but with a head injury like this, she needed medical attention. And fast.

Anon was an ocean away. Literally. I was her only hope.

I glanced around the room. The motionless bodies were scattered throughout. It was a rather grim scene, but I was focused on more important things. The door was open. Meiko was gone.

My heart nearly stopped at the sound of police sirens. Looking down at the street, I watched with horror as three police cars pulled up to the curb across the street. Someone had called about the gun. The officers stepped out of their cars, dispersing the crowd. They were across the street, but it was only a matter of time until they found us.

"Rin!" I called again, trying desperately to wake her up. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to go. Panic was coursing through my veins.

Her eyes remained closed and her breathing remained soft.

Wherever we went, I knew it had to be away from here. I took off my bag, digging through it for my face mask and slipped it on. I grabbed Rin's good arm, kneeling down as I pulled her onto my bag. Her arms dangled around my neck, and her cheek rested softly against my shoulder. I could feel the blood from her wound dripping onto the back of my shirt. I grabbed the bag from the floor, slipping it over both my shoulder and hers in an attempt to balance her on my back. It kind of worked.

The officers had zoned off the area where the gun had landed. It had exploded into several pieces on impact, which all lay scattered throughout the sidewalk. One of them entered the front doors of the sister building. I was running out of time.

I stood, trying to shift Rin into a comfortable position on my back. The bag helped keep her left side balanced, but I had to keep my right arm constantly hooked under her leg to keep her from slipping. I ran out of the room leaning forward, my back nearly parallel to the ground. I pulled Rin's hood over her head as I ran.

Some of the hotel's occupants stopped in the hall at the sight of us. Three people, two guys and a girl, were carrying their luggage through the hall when they saw us. I jogged past them. My bag would be scrambling the cameras, but there was no hiding from the sights of pedestrians.

Just as I turned the corner for the stairs, one of them screamed. They must have passed the bloody scene we left behind.

Now we _really_ had to run.

 _Just get out, just get out, just get out,_ I repeatedly thought to myself as I sprinted down the stairs, careful to keep myself balanced. The police had entered the other building, so there was no escape in that direction. We couldn't go up, obviously, since there was no Yuma in a helicopter to pick us up, so I only had one option. Down.

Rin's cheek bounced against my shoulder as I ran.

She needed Anon. She needed her team.

 _I_ needed _my_ team.

But they were in another country. And, I realized with despair, I had no way to contact them. We had already reached the lobby when I remembered that Rin's bag contained our plane tickets. Rin's bag that was upstairs, covered in the blood of the guards.

It was too late to go back for it. I cursed under my breath.

I was completely and utterly alone with Rin unconscious on my back, the police and a possible rival assassin coming after me, and no way to contact any backup. If I fucked anything up, Rin and I would end up dead or captured. I didn't know which was worse.

There were more people walking down the stairs who shouted after me as I passed them. It certainly looked bad. Some guy running with an unconscious girl on his back? Bad news.

We had no hotel to return to, no escape car, no evac, nothing.

But we have bases in every major country in the world.

 _UK. Where is it?_ I could hear Yuma's voice in my ears.

"Fuck," I muttered. Under all this stress, I couldn't remember.

My breathing heavy, I kicked open the door to the lobby. Several pairs of eyes looked in my direction as I entered. I tried to skirt the walls, but my attempts at hiding were in vain.

The main exit was out of the question. Even now I could see the police walking towards the building. There was an empty hall to my right. Probably some maintenance hall or something. I followed it.

 _This is the one with that, like, super British-sounding name, right?_

It was. The city… the village, more like. It was North. I knew that much. But what was its fucking _name_?

It was North. For now, that was enough. I needed to go North. But it was way too far to walk. I needed a car.

No taxi driver would stop for someone who looked like they were in the middle of a kidnapping. And even if they did, they would never drive me several hours to this random town in the middle of nowhere. I probably had enough money to simply buy a new car, but the thought was so ridiculous I almost laughed at it.

"Down there!" I person called from the lobby.

 _Uh oh._

I went from a light jog to a full out sprint.

I couldn't taxi, I couldn't purchase. That left me with one option. Theft. I didn't like it, but I didn't have a choice. Kanon had shown me that process of hotwiring a car. I played the instructions over in my head.

With every few bounds down the hall, I had to pull Rin up my back. She was still slipping.

There was yelling behind me. An emergency exit stood against the wall a few feet ahead of me. Pushing it would sound the alarm.

I was already being pursued and I had no other options. So I pushed it open.

The humid air rushed at me, blowing through mine and Rin's hair. It had started to rain. The door shut behind me, muffling the high-pitched ringing that ensued my exit.

Rin was still passed out.

I had stepped into an alley. Without wasting time, I dashed to the left, continuing to run with my back low to the ground. Even her small weight was beginning to ache my shoulders.

"Red wire to red wire, brown wire to brown wire. Red wire to red wire, brown wire to-" I mumbled to myself. I turned a corner, hearing more shouts behind me, and disappeared into the maze of buildings in downtown London.

* * *

 _This is probably one of my top three chapters in this entire thing. For once, Len gets to be the hero!_

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	14. Chapter 14

_Kettlewell. The town is called Kettlewell._

I had been running non-stop through the alleys of London, searching in my memory for the name. And finally, it had come to me.

It felt like an eternity since we left the hotel, but it had been less than thirty minutes. The rain continued. It stuck my hair to my face and soaked both our clothes all the way through. It only added to my discomfort. To make matters worse, the sky was darkening. It was almost night time.

I had lost my pursuers a while ago, but every face I saw, every noise I heard, I jumped away from and ran in the opposite direction. _Car. Gotta get to a car. A car. Kettlewell._ There would be medical supplies there, too. The infirmary. I'd be able to help Rin.

She still hadn't woken up.

The cover of darkness added a bit of confidence to my horrible mood. At the edge of an alley, only a few feet away from a crowded parking lot, I set Rin down on the wet ground and slid my bag under her head to keep her injury from getting filthy. Confident that no one would find her, I jogged to the nearest car. The duct tape hung around my wrist. In one hand I held my knife and in the other, my unextended baton.

The nearest car was a white BMW. It looked nice. It looked expensive.

"Sorry, stranger," I said, meaning it, and stepping forward to the door.

I jammed the blade of the knife between the door and the body of the car. Praying that it wouldn't snap, I pulled the handle away from the car, widening the gap. With my free hand, I extended the baton, sticking it through the opening and aiming for the lock button. After a few tries, I managed to press it down. The doors unlocked with a satisfying _click_.

I threw the door open, checking the parking lot one last time for any people, and kneeled down in front of the driver's seat.

Using the knife to remove any screws, I pulled away the cover underneath the wheel. A familiar line of wires appeared. Among them were two red and two brown.

 _Red to red, brown to brown. Red to red, brown to-_

I started with the brown. Cutting both ends, I twisted the wires together and wrapped them in a thin strip of duct tape. The dashboard lit up and the radio blared to life. Next, the dangerous part. I cut the red wires and stripped the cover around them, careful not to touch them with my bare hands. The last thing I needed today was electrocution.

I tapped them together, and the car flared to life.

"Yes!" I whispered victoriously. After wrapping the ends in duct tape, to keep them from shocking me while we drove, I left the door open and went to fetch Rin.

She looked like she was sleeping. Curled up into a ball, clearly cold from the rain, her eyes softly shut and her head pillowed by my bag. I took a quick second to turn her head over, examining the wound on her temple. A thumb-sized cut had extended from her hairline down. It was wide enough that I estimated she would need stitches. It was still bleeding, but barely.

It was a nasty cut. No wonder it knocked her out this long. Probably concussed her, too.

I frowned. She was going to be in a lot of pain when she woke up.

My arms screamed in protest as I lugged her onto my back again, carrying her to the backseat of the car and laying her gently inside. After retrieving the bag, we were off.

I was lucky enough to have picked a car with a navigation system and an almost-full tank of gas. I typed _Kettlewell_ onto the screen. We drove.

The sun had set and the rain had turned from a steady hum to a torrential downpour.

We had been in the car for almost four hours. We could have been there an hour ago, but I was forced to follow traffic laws to the best of my ability. I didn't want to get pulled over for speeding in a stolen car with an unconscious assassin in my back seat.

We had left the city long ago. There were no lights on this highway. Combining that with the rain made it almost impossible to see out of the windshield. Thank God I had remembered to turn on the electronics first, or else we'd be driving in the pitch-black.

Rin tossed and turned in the back seat. She was beginning to fade in and out of consciousness. I didn't know if that was a good sign or not. I was just happy she was waking up at all.

I didn't know we had reached the small village until we were halfway through it. Traditional rock buildings surrounded us, none more than two stories tall. There were no street lamps, no people walking around, and no other driving cars. We had entered the town on the west side. We needed to get to the east.

I drove slowly. The rain continued to pour.

I took a right somewhere once the road began to turn North. From here, I was clueless. The bunker was east of Kettlewell, hidden in the hills. I had no idea where.

I also did not remember the best way to turn off the hot-wired car. Touching the wires together again would just attempt to start it again. The gas was almost out, and, once I was confident I had reached the eastern limits of the village, I simply put it in park and left it.

The car ride had dried my clothes. The second I stepped out of the car, they were soaked again. The rain fell in heavy, large drops that splattered at my as they hit the car. It almost felt like it was hailing into my back.

Rin had rolled over in the backseat. She snuggled against the leather.

"Rin," I called, though my voice was barely audible over the rain. "Come on." I knew she couldn't hear me. I grabbed her ankles, gently pulling her towards me, and balanced her on my back once again. Leaning forward like this to keep her balanced was killing my back. But we were almost there. I imagined the hike to the base in Montana. It couldn't have been much longer than that.

With my bag on my shoulders and Rin cradled onto my back, I started down the road. My free hand held the flashlight from my bag.

The pavement branched off onto dirt paths. I could have driven the car this far, but it would have been a dead giveaway to the base's position if I had managed to find it. Walking was the safer, yet more cumbersome, option.

With every step, my shoes sunk deep into the mud. There were a couple times when I was convinced I had gotten myself stuck, only to yank my foot from the ground and lose my balance for a moment. If I fell then, I wasn't sure I'd have the strength to get back up.

The rain continued to pour.

My small flashlight illuminated a circle before me. It shook with every step. I was shivering now. The unsteady circle of light reflected that.

I walked endlessly down the dirt path. Eventually, I caught sight of a stone fence.

"Fuck," I murmured. My back was killing me, my legs were burning, my arms were shaking, and I had only just reached the end of the small farmer's property. It was the first time I doubted my ability to make it any further.

But I kept going. Climbing over the fence carefully, I trudged on into the hills. There was no path to guide me now.

I had no idea where I was going. I felt like I was on the verge of freezing to death. There was no way of telling what time it was or knowing when the rain would finally pass and the sun would come up. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled through the sky.

Yuma had told me other identifying characteristics of each base around the world. He had told me a strategy to find them all. But each country had a unique one. I had hoped that being presented with the hills would jog my memory. So far, it hadn't.

But laying in the wet grass and pouting about it wouldn't help anything. So I kept walking.

At one point, I stepped into a particularly deep pit of mud. It took me nearly a minute to free myself, and, once I had, I jerked roughly to the right, landing on my side with a grunt. Rin toppled off of my back and fell into the grass next to me. Something in my bag broke.

Laying in the mud, with the unending rain pounding onto me, my entire body exhausted to the point of failure, I didn't want to get up. I was perfectly okay with going to sleep right then and there. For a long moment, breathing heavily against the ground, I considered it.

But Rin needed to get out of this.

So, with a groan, I pulled myself back to my feet, positioned Rin on my back once again, grabbed my bag, and kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

"Len," Rin's weak voice suddenly sounded by my ear.

"Rin? Oh shit, are you okay? Are-"

"Where are we?" She asked softly. Her arms, which previously hung limply over my shoulders, tightened in an attempt to steady herself.

I panted between my words. "The UK base. Where is it? Do you know how to find it?" I was desperate to get somewhere safe and dry.

She sighed. I looked over my shoulder at her to see she had closed her eyes again. I almost screamed in anger at the thought that she had fallen unconscious again, but she suddenly spoke. "There's this… this dirt path-"

"I followed it," I cut her off.

"To the rock wall?"

"Yeah." _I was going the right way._ If I hadn't been so miserable, I might have jumped for joy.

"And then… and then straight?"

"Yeah! Yeah."

She paused again. "How many hills did we pass?"

I had no idea. Over the hours, I had lost count. "I don't know."

She picked her head up off of my shoulder, glancing around. There wasn't much to see in the darkness. "Over there," she pointed to my right with a shaky hand. "Point the flashlight over there."

I did. About a hundred feet away from us was a dip in the plains. It was a bowl cut out of the smooth ground. A tree poked out of it.

"That's… that's…" She leaned her head against my back again and said no more.

Fueled with hope, I ran for the tree. Sure enough, As I reached the edge, I caught sight of a familiar metal door.

"Holy shit. Oh my God," I whispered to myself as I slid down the edge. This bunker did not have a keycode. Instead, there was a small indent shaped like a hand on the left side of the door. Doubting that I had access, I dropped the flashlight, picking up Rin's hand and pressed it against the scanner.

The door opened.

I picked up the flashlight again and descended the stairs with glee.

The base was identical to the other one. Using the flashlight to guide us through the room, I headed straight to the infirmary, setting Rin down on the table gently. I threw my bag on the ground next to her. Next, the generator. I left small pools of water with every step. Water sloshed in my shoes and on my clothes. Through the living area, into the beds, to the generator. The second I activated it, the machine roared to life and all the lights turned on. It nearly blinded me.

I opened the chest at the foot of my bed, or, at least, what would have been my bed, and was pleased to find clean, dry clothes inside. I took the extra minute to change into them. It wasn't the normal outfit we wore back home, instead some possibly discarded pajamas. But they were dry. That was all that mattered to me.

I threw my sopping onto the floor of the bathroom as I made my way back to the infirmary.

There had been a piece of sanitary paper lining the table Rin laid on. It was nearly falling apart under her dripping clothes. I awkwardly removed the paper from under her, taking off her jacket and stopping there. I refused, even if getting her in dry clothes would help her, to go any further.

I grabbed some clean cloths, wetting them in the sink, and began dabbing at the cut on her head. I had to brush her bangs out of the way to see it clearer. The rain had washed most of the blood away, but there was still a single line running down her cheek. I dabbed it away too.

Rin furrowed her brow, recoiling from my hand. Her eyes fluttered open, and she clamped them shut again.

"It's bright," she said. Her voice was still alarmingly soft and weak.

"Sorry," I said. "Kinda need the light to… you know. See."

She sighed, then propped herself up on her elbows.

"No! No. You should lay down-"

"I'm _fine_ ," she insisted.

"Rin, you're not. You've been out for hours. You need to lay down and let me look at this."

Her eyes were still closed. She ignored my plea, pushing herself up into a sitting position. She turned to face me. Her legs dangled over the edge of the table, nearly a foot away from the ground.

She took a deep breath. Sitting up, she was nearly eye level with me. "Everything is spinning." She didn't open her eyes.

"I'm pretty sure you're concussed," I told her, stepping forward again to dab at her temple. She flinched but didn't move away this time. "You got hit pretty hard."

"I don't… I don't remember-"

Memory loss. Definitely a concussion.

"How's your shoulder?" I asked, careful not to rub the cut. Dabbing would get the blood off, rubbing it would only disturb it more.

She shrugged. "It's… fine."

I wasn't convinced. Reaching for the cabinet to my right, I pulled the door open and retrieved a sling. The specific location of every item was identical to home.

"No," she said, her eyes finally opening in slits. She glanced at the sling with low lids.

"Yes," I answered. I dropped the cloth onto the table next to her, wrapping the sling around her shoulder and positioning her arm in it. She wasn't happy. But she didn't resist.

"What happened?" She asked as I continued cleaning her cut.

I took a deep breath. "You want the long version or the short version?"

"I want to know everything."

So I explained everything. The mysterious stranger, Meiko's betrayal. The gun, the police, the car, the drive here, the rain. Everything. Ending with her briefly regaining consciousness to tell me the last bit of information needed to find our hidden haven.

Throughout my explanation, she didn't say a word. Heavy silence filled the room as I concluded as well.

"You need stitches," I told her after a few minutes.

"I don't want to."

"You _need_ to," I answered.

She let out a soft laugh. "You sound like Anon."

I turned away, pulling open the drawers once again to find the disinfectant. "This is going to sting," I warned her, dabbing it onto another clean cloth.

Her eyes fell on the bottle suspiciously. "Do you have to-"

"Yes," I nodded. "We need to clean it."

She reminded me of a little girl at the doctor's office, protesting her shots.

"It's just for a second, okay? I need to make sure nothing got into it. If it gets infected-"

"I know, I know," she interrupted. Her gaze traveled downward. "Just… do it. I guess."

I gently laid the cloth against her skin.

"Ow," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I know. Sorry. Just a few more seconds."

Her knuckles were white. She was clutching the edge of the table like her life depended on it.

"Okay," I finally said, slowly pulling the cloth away. She still wore her pained expression. It would sting for a while. But that wasn't even the worst part.

Nearly an hour later, she sat in front of me, stitched up, exhausted, and still in pain.

"It's all done," I told her, grabbing an adhesive bandage. "Just this thing and we can go to bed."

She didn't respond. Her eyes were glued to the floor. The entire time, she hadn't met my eyes once.

I stuck the bandage onto her head and smiled. The fact that this was over thrilled me as much as it thrilled her. Though she didn't show it. "There," I said. "All done."

She didn't move.

My smile faded. I knew this expression. "We're okay now," I promised her. "We're safe here."

"We're never safe," she spat out.

I let out a deep breath. Though I didn't want to accept it, I knew she was right.

"I can't believe it," she said softly. "I just… I can't. She hired someone to kill me. It just doesn't seem right."

I let her talk without interrupting.

She let out a huff. "I can already hear Kanon's ' _I told you so'_ ,"

"Well," I shrugged. "At least you weren't alone."

She hesitated. "I would have died today if you hadn't been there."

I had known it since we stepped out of the building, but her words still hit me with a force I did not expect. "Eh, it was nothing."

"You could have left," she continued. She rose her gaze but kept it trained on the wall to her right, still avoiding me. "That was your chance. You could have left with all that money and that gear and we would have had no way to track you down or find you. You could have gone home. Gone back to your normal life. Told the police. You could have left. But you didn't."

The thought had never even crossed my mind. "I couldn't just leave you there."

She sniffled a bit. And then, out of nowhere, she leaned forward, resting her forehead against my shoulder. I froze.

"Thank you," she whimpered against my dry shirt.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Rin, it was really nothing. Like, of course I would have-" I cut myself off. "Do… do you have dry clothes here?"

She nodded, her motions ruffling my shirt.

"Where are they?"

"By my bed," she said.

I gently grabbed her shoulders, pushing her away. Only then did she look up at me. "I'll go get them," I told her.

Her eyes were watery. "Okay."

After she changed, I followed her into the living quarters. She insisted on walking without help, but I watched her carefully as she swayed. Whether from her head or from exhaustion, I couldn't tell, but I wasn't about to let her fall.

She made it to her bed without losing her balance. It was only then that I noticed the plainness of these cubbies. Each bed had nothing more than a thin sheet over it. Folded on the shelf of what would have been Flower's bed was a single heavy blanket.

Rin had already snuggled under her sheets. I wanted nothing more than to keep this blanket to myself, but I knew it would be better for her to have it. I unfolded it and laid it over her bed. She didn't react.

With my flashlight in hand, I turned the generator off and climbed into my bed across from her.

The sheet wasn't warm, but it was better than being out in the rain. The walls around us shook as thunder rumbled through the air once again.

Rin tossed and turned for a long time in her bed. I could see nothing, but I could hear the sheets ruffling under her distress. I didn't blame her. She had been a second away from a bullet to the head. The thought was disturbing to me as well. _Thank God for Kanon's paranoia._ I couldn't imagine Flower returning home from picking Rin up from the airport without the girl. I'd be at home, probably doing some stupid contest with Yuma, and Flower would come back looking disturbed and worried. And Rin would be dead.

 _Shit._ A lot had happened today. The same thoughts were probably running through Rin's head, too.

But Flower was going to return home from the airport empty-handed. Our flight was well on its way to Montana, maybe even there already. I still had no idea what time it was or how long it had been. Either way, we would need to find a way to contact them tomorrow. We were both too exhausted to get out of bed now.

Rin shuffled once more. Then, to my surprise, I heard her step away from her bed.

My back was to the wall. I opened my eyes to try and see where she was going, but it was no use in the darkness.

And then the blanket was thrown over my bed. I let out a laugh. "You should have it-"

My words caught in my throat as the edge of both the blanket and the sheets was lifted, and she crawled between them.

"Rin-"

"Shut up," she answered quietly, burying her nose in my chest.

She was scared. She was really, really scared.

I wrapped my arm around her and closed my eyes.

* * *

 _Why do all of my fics end up being 5672393269 chapters longer than I plan._

 _This one is up to 34 now. So prepare for a read lol_

 _Thanks for reading everyone! :)_


	15. Chapter 15

"It's under here. Every base has a laptop like this."

"Yeah. Yuma told me. I just don't know how to… work it."

In the main room, from under the table, Rin retrieved a thick laptop. She unfolded it and set it on the table. The home screen wasn't a normal desktop. The computer had been completely reprogrammed to suit the group's best interests. Rin clicked through a few tabs, the dark background making it hard to make out the contents of the screen from her side. She typed in some numbers, the coordinates of the Montana base, and sat in one of the chairs. I sat next to her. After a second of loading, the screen went black.

And then Yuma's concerned face appeared on the screen.

" _Where the fuck are you guys?_ " He asked, his voice ripe with worry. Before Rin had the chance to respond, Flower, Anon, and Kanon each appeared from offscreen, staring at us.

Rin took one look at them and sighed. She turned to me. "You talk to them," she said, standing from the table and heading back towards the living quarters.

I watched her go with a frown.

" _Len? What happened?_ " Yuma asked again.

" _I was about to call it,"_ Flower told me. " _I was almost positive you guys were dead."_

"It's… it's a long story," I said, pulling the laptop closer to me. "But we missed our flight. And I don't know if it's a good idea to take her anywhere in public right now."

" _Tell us, Len,"_ Kanon goaded. " _We have time."_

I didn't feel like recounting the story again, but I knew it was necessary. So, for the next half hour, I explained everything that had happened the day before. I made sure to leave out the fact that we had slept in the same bed.

Once they heard about the enemy assassin, their expressions grew troubled.

"...and here we are," I concluded, glancing towards the hallway once again. "I don't think she feels good. It's a nasty cut."

Yuma leaned back, running a hand through his hair. Anon's eyes were trained on the floor. Kanon's expression was stiff and strained. Flower stood behind them, her arms crossed, deep in thought.

There was a moment of silence as all of them absorbed the information.

" _Good job, Len,"_ Anon finally said. " _You… did everything right."_

I let out an unamused laugh. "Took me hours to remember what this place was called."

" _Did you stitch her up? Clean the cut first? Did you-"_

" _Anon,_ " her sister interrupted. " _You can look at it when they get back."_

" _We need to get you guys home,_ " Yuma finally said. " _We're gonna come get you. Do_ not _leave the base until we get there."_

I nodded. "Okay."

" _Keep the laptop on. If we need to contact you, it'll be on here."_

"When are you guys leaving?" I asked.

" _Now."_

Yuma's concern was almost troubling. Like we were still in danger. "Okay," I answered.

He didn't respond. He reached forward to close the screen. The call ended.

Now, to wait.

Rin was probably lying down and I didn't want to bother her. So I went to the armory. Entering the room, I was pleasantly surprised to find it stocked with the same amount of guns as home. I decided to shoot down the range to pass the time.

The two bases were so similar that I could almost convince myself that I was already home. It was easier to take my mind off the situation if I pretended, as I shot at the target down the hall, that the others were all down here with me. Somewhere.

But that wasn't the case.

* * *

That night, I was sitting in the main room, rummaging through my bag when my radio activated.

" _We're outside. Hurry."_ It was Yuma.

"On our way," I answered, throwing everything back into the bag and pulling it over my shoulder.

Rin hadn't left her bed all day.

"Rin," I said, entering the bedroom. "They're here. It's time to go."

Her back was to me. For a moment I thought she was sleeping. She shuffled a bit, then turned to face me.

"How you feeling?" I asked. We hadn't changed her bandages all day. She refused to let me near them.

"Alive," she said softly. With a deep breath, she pushed herself up. "Let's just go home."

"Agreed."

We could hear the steady beat of the blades before we reached the top of the stairs. Opening the door revealed the amazing sight of Anon and Kanon standing in the helicopter, holding their hands out to us. Their hair blew wildly in the wind. The smell of rain was still in the air, the fields around us a harsh green in the moonlight. Tonight was completely clear.

"Let's get out of here!" Yuma yelled from the driver's seat.

* * *

It was morning by the time we finally arrived home.

Rin said nothing to the others as she walked slowly out of the main room, no doubt heading to her bed.

Flower watched her go from the table. Once the injured girl left, a sigh escaped her lips. "We have a lot to talk about."

I had slept on the plane ride home. Plus, I didn't want to disturb Rin's sleep. So I joined the others at the table for our tense, inevitable conversation.

Flower rested her elbows on the table. "We just… this is bad, okay? This is really bad."

No one said anything.

"Losing Meiko as an ally, and, even worse, learning that she's plotting against us, is… catastrophic. I don't even have the words," Flower continued.

"We can still get contracts other ways, though, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, but no high-value ones. Plus, if you were right about the other assassin, she's most-likely found another crew to work with."

"We can survive without the big ones," Kanon pointed out. I noted to myself that she hadn't gloated about her correct suspicions yet. At this point, she probably never would. Her dedication to helping her friends instead of saying _I told you so_ was an admirable one.

Flower shook her head. "Yeah. We can. But that's not what I'm worried about." Her eyes passed over each of us, stopping on me. "Meiko's going to know, when none of her guys return to her, that you escaped. And that means she's going to be after you. She knows more about us than anyone else on the planet. And if she's working with Luka, that means _Luka_ knows more about us than anyone else on the planet."

I joined my hands on the table nervously. "So… what're we gonna do?"

"I don't know. But we need the money from our contracts to function."

"We did a huge one," Anon shrugged. "We'll be okay for a while."

"But what happens when it runs out?"

"That could take years, Flower," Yuma pointed out.

"Years of them plotting against us. Now, not only does Luka want us gone, but Meiko does, too. If we don't do something, we're not gonna live long enough to see those years."

A heavy silence filled the table. Now I understood why they waited to start this conversation until Rin had gone. The stress on her head was enough already.

"We need to do something," Flower concluded.

"...Do what?" I asked.

"I think we should go after them."

Kanon's shoulders slumped. Anon's eyes bulged.

Yuma shook his head and laughed. "You really think we can track them down?"

"I think you can, yes."

"You're fucking crazy," he responded. "I track civilians. Not the world's most-wanted."

Flower scowled, raising her voice. "We have two options! We either go out and do contracts like normal, letting them track us and hunt us like animals, or we go after them first."

"Either we die running from them, or we die fighting them," I said, my eyes glued to the table.

The two silenced their bickering to look at me. It was a harsh way of putting it, but it was true. The unspoken knowledge of this situation.

Flower was standing now. "We might have a chance if we fight back. Maybe."

"We're going after them."

We all turned towards the hallway. Rin stood, head still wrapped, arm in a sling, leaning against the wall with tired eyes.

Yuma let out a huff of frustration. "This is a deathwish."

"We don't have a choice," Kanon pointed out, her voice gentle and patient with him.

"Let's…" Rin trailed off. "Let's not take any contracts for a while," she suggested. "We need to focus on tracking down Meiko."

Flower nodded. She seemed pleased with how the conversation had turned out. "Okay."

A moment passed. As everyone concluded that the conversation was over, they slowly dispersed from the table. Anon and Kanon disappeared into the living area with Rin, Flower stomped off to the gym, and Yuma pulled his laptop out of his bag to begin his search.

No one had told me what to do. So I followed Flower towards the gym.

She was already in the range, the rest of the world dead to her as she focused in on her target. Not wanting to bother her, I decided to make use of the high-class gym equipment.

* * *

For the next few days, a horrible tense mood fell over all of us. There were no smiles, no jokes, and very little conversation. Everyone did their own thing while Yuma, assisted a bit by Kanon, searched for any sign of the woman who had just tried to kill us. I wasn't sure if my training was completed or put on hold, but no one instructed me specifically towards anything during those days. I was able to spend my days how I wanted for the first time in months. I didn't know what to do with myself. The somber mood was killing me, so I spent most of my time trying to escape from it.

If, a couple months ago, I had imagined what an assassin hideout would be like, I would have never guessed it would be full of laughter, jokes, and a general familial mood. Now, this place felt just as unwelcoming and unfriendly as I would have pictured.

One day, I was alone in the armory overlooking one of my favorite guns when Rin appeared in the doorway. She could now go without the sling, with Anon's permission, and the cut on her head had almost completely healed. She looked good as new. Like with everyone else, I had seen her every day and yet barely spoken to her since London.

"You busy?" She asked.

I glanced down at the disassembled gun. "Not really. Just trying to kill time."

She nodded. "This sucks."

"I thought I was the only one who thought that," I told her.

A soft laugh escaped her. The first one I had heard in a long time. "No. Not just you. Everyone hates it."

Though it wasn't specifically clear what _it_ was, I knew what she was talking about, and I hated it too.

"Come on," she said, nodding her head towards the gym.

"Where we going?"

"Sparring."

I furrowed my brow. "Are you sure-?" Adding back one of my favorite training practices would do wonders to improve my mood, but Rin was still healing.

"Anon gave me the okay. Let's go."

Ditching my worries, I let a wide grin stretch across my face. "Finally," I said. "Something fun."

The staff was almost unfamiliar in my hands. But the second we began, it felt as if I had never stopped.

The morale in the bunker was at an all-time low, but Rin and I were able to find some way to smile through it.

* * *

 _A short chapter. But finally, we get to our plot. Yay!_

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	16. Chapter 16

"I think I've got something."

As we all stood in the kitchen, nearing our second week of tense silence, these words made everyone freeze from their meals. Yuma stood at the counter, directly in front of the fridge, staring hesitantly at all of us.

"But I really feel like this is a bad idea."

"What is it?" Flower asked, her words sounding more like a demand than a question.

"It's just… I feel like I'm leading us all to _die_ -"

"What. Is. It?" Flower repeated.

Yuma took a deep breath, his shoulders low. "I've gotten in touch with some of Meiko's other clients. Most of them were willing to talk to me about where they've met up with her."

Anon furrowed her brow. "What if they tell her? We don't want her to know-"

"They don't know it was us," Kanon answered. "Her clients just know we're _somebody_. Which isn't uncommon. For all they know, we could be potential clients, too."

Yuma shot her an appreciative glance and continued. "I've got a list of all the spots she's met with her clients as well as the dates that they've met. And I think I've found a pattern."

Rin raised her eyebrows. She was halfway through a bowl of cereal next to me. "A pattern?"

"Meiko goes to the same locations to meet with people. All these locations, though I'm missing a few, go in a very specific pattern."

"So you know where she's going next?" I asked.

"...I can take an educated guess."

"Well?! Spit it, Yuma!" Flower's voice rose in a combination of impatience and excitement.

He breathed in slowly. "I'm pretty sure her next meeting is in Monterrey. Mexico."

Flower picked up her bowl, half-finished as well, and dumped its contents down the sink. "What are we waiting for? Let's get you guys to the airport!"

"Flower, chill," Anon said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We need some sort of plan before we just run in there."

"The longer we wait, the higher the chance that-"

"I know! I know," Yuma interrupting, holding up a hand to silence her. "I know. But we need to talk this through. We are, by _no_ means, trying to ambush her here."

"Why not?" Flower asked.

"Because we're not just trying to kill her for payback," he answered quickly. "We need information from her. Information that she's not going to give up. Even if we threaten her life. She knows stuff about Luka and we need _that_."

"How are we supposed to get it?" She asked.

Rin nodded, clearly catching on to Yuma's plan. "We need to find where she's hiding. We need to find her base."

"Exactly." He seemed relieved Rin agreed with him. "The only way we're going to find this information is if we steal it from the source itself."

"But we _are_ going to kill her, right?" Rin asked.

Yuma closed his mouth.

"Of course we are," Flower answered. "We can't have her running around-"

"Without her data, she'll be useless," Kanon pointed out. "She won't be able to bring in any income and she'll be gone before you know it. We don't…" she trailed off. "We don't _have_ to kill her."

Rin looked like someone had punched her in the face. "Of course we do! We can't have someone who's trying to get back at us running rampant all over the world!"

Flower shared her vigor. "If we don't kill her, who knows what she'll do?"

Yuma and Kanon exchanged glances. "She won't have any power anymore. She won't be able to do anything. Would you rather kill her, or have her suffer in prison for the rest of her life?" Yuma asked.

Flower leaned forward onto the counter. "If she gets arrested, we're fucked. What's stopping her from telling them all about us? Then _we_ will be suffering in prison for the rest of our lives."

"What do you guys think?" Kanon asked, looking between her sister and I. Throughout the conversation, we had remained silent.

My eyes widened. "I… uh…"

Anon lowered her gaze.

"You two are the tiebreakers," Kanon said calmly. Flower was basically fuming at this point and Rin wasn't far off. "So one of you, say something."

I stood tall, looking down at my bowl of cereal. "I…" Choosing sides was something I had hoped I would never have to do. But this was a team. We were in a difficult situation and I had an answer that I believed was right. "I think it's too risky to leave her alive."

All eyes turned to Anon. The girl recoiled under everyone's gazes.

She gulped. "We've killed enough people," she said.

Three to three. We stood in silence for a moment. Finally, Yuma shook his head. "Whatever. We'll have to come to a consensus later. For now, we know what we have to do. She'll be flying into Mexico to meet with one of her clients sometime this week. We need to scout the airport to look for her." He glanced at Flower. "I think you should come with us."

She furrowed her brow. "Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure, at some point, Meiko has seen all five of us except for you. So I think it will be safest for you to stay in the airport and look for her."

She considered his words. "Okay. That makes sense."

Yuma turned to look at Rin and I. "You guys have to come with us. It's too dangerous for you to stay here by yourselves and we might need your help. But she'll be looking for you two. So, while we're there, you guys can't be anywhere near the airport."

"What do you expect me to do?" Rin asked with annoyance. "Sit in the hotel and twiddle my thumbs?"

"That's _exactly_ what I expect you to do."

"We can't just sit around all day while you guys are out risking your lives-"

"He's right, Rin," Anon said. "If she sees you guys, all hell will break loose."

Rin shut her mouth, looking angrily down at her breakfast. She didn't seem interested in finishing it.

I laughed in an attempt to clear the air. "Finally. A real vacation."

Despite himself, Yuma grinned. It faded as soon as he started talking again. "Remember, I could be _completely_ wrong here. We could be in Mexico for two days, two weeks, two months, I have no idea. All I know is that eventually, she will be meeting in the city. And I have a hunch her meeting is in a few days."

"So I'm scouting the airport," Flower clarified. "Until we find Meiko. Then I'm tailing her to see which flight she takes, and where it goes?"

"Exactly. We are _not_ killing her, we are _not_ attacking her, we're not even gonna try to track her with our tech. If she finds one of our trackers on her, she'll go into lockdown. We can't afford to fuck this up. We have to do it the hard way."

Flower shrugged. "Sounds easy enough."

Rin crossed her arms. "I can't believe you guys are going to make me sit in a hotel room for two weeks."

Yuma shrugged. "Maybe less. Maybe more. I have no idea."

"Sweet," Kanon clapped her hands together. "When are we leaving?"

"As soon as everyone's packed."

"One more thing," Yuma said, his expression darkening once again. "We… we could be gone for a long time. I'm gonna take some extra time to pack all of my gear. I don't know when or if we'll need it, but we won't come back here to get it for a while. Who knows," he added in a low voice. "Maybe… maybe we'll _never_ come back here."

His troubling words hung in the air.

He sighed. "Go pack. We'll leave when we're done."

The six of us descended to our rooms in silence.

I had very little to pack. In fact, all of my belongings easily fit into my duffle bag. Surprisingly, Rin was the same way.

"Wait," Yuma called as we began to leave the room. "Gimmie your bags. I've got more shit I need to bring."

So we left our bags with them and returned to the main room.

I chuckled as I sat in one of the chairs. "It feels like I just got here. And I'm already leaving."

Rin sat next to me. "Yeah," she sighed, looking around the bare room. "There's no place like home."

"How long do you think we'll be gone?" I asked her.

She frowned. I had noticed that, since we returned from London, she had been even quieter than usual. "I don't know."

Something was eating at her. As much as I wanted to know, I didn't want to pry. But I also didn't like seeing her so down. "You know," I said, casting a glance towards the gym. "We probably won't get the chance to spar again for a while."

Beneath her low gaze, I saw a small smile appear. "Probably not," she agreed.

"And it would be a _shame_ -"

She pushed herself from the table. "You're on," she taunted, running towards the gym.

 _That's better,_ I thought with a smile. I raced after her.

She already had the staffs off the wall when I stepped onto the mat. I caught mine easily when she threw it at me.

Her eyes sparkled with determination. If there was one thing I had learned about Rin in the past few months, it was her love for competition. "This is it," she said.

"Winner takes all?" I raised my eyebrow.

She took a deep breath. "Winner takes all."

We stood at opposite ends, staring each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move. With a flash of movement, Rin jumped forward.

It was hard to imagine that I had once been unable to fight her for more than a few seconds. Many of her moves seemed horribly predictable, with only a few extra swipes taking me by surprise. _Clack_ after _clack_ rang out through the room around us as I deflected strike after strike from her. There were a few times when I attempted to counter her with a strike to her side, but she jumped neatly out of the way every time.

Minutes passed. The further into the match we got, the heavier my breathing become and the sorer my muscles felt. Rin was feeling my same fatigue. Despite this, we wore matching grins.

I played back the first time I had beaten her. She was too quick to strike directly with the staff so I would have to catch her first.

She aimed for a low strike to my hip, which I dodged with a jump back. With the other end of her staff, she brought it down towards my head. _Here's my chance._ I held up my weapon to block it. There was a slight pause as Rin recovered her strength from the blow. Taking advantage of the time, I pushed the staff up, throwing her off balance, and knocked it out of her grip easily with a strike to her right hand. Realizing she was about to lose, she jumped for it in an attempt to recover herself. To stop her, I jumped behind her, swinging the staff in front of her stomach and pulling her in.

Her weapon clattered against the ground. I had her pulled against me, completely helpless as it fell.

We paused. It was over. I had won.

Despite this, I didn't release her from my grip. For a moment, we stood there, both surprised at the position we had found ourselves in. Her breath coming out in gasps, she slowly looked over her shoulder towards me. The adrenaline still pouring through her made her every movement shaky. She gazed over her shoulder at me with those low-lidded, icy blue eyes. We were close enough to share the same air, both of us trying to catch our breath. I resisted the urge to lean in closer.

Lost in the moment, I was completely taken off guard as she swiped at my left hand, jumping through the gap in my arms. I basically handed my staff to her as she jumped away, turning back to me and aiming the end straight at my neck.

"Dead," she said.

"No way!" I yelled. "I had you! I totally won!"

"You got distracted."

I definitely did. "Only after I had won."

"You didn't call 'Dead'," she pointed out with a sly grin.

"I didn't _need_ to!" I rose my voice, still a little dizzy from the moment I had just shared with her. "I _won_ and we both knew it!"

"Mhmm," she said, lowering the staff to the floor, still grinning. "Sure you did."

"The fuck are you two doing?" Yuma's voice called from the main room. "We need to go _now_!"

I let out a deep breath, watching Rin as she picked up her discarded staff and set it next to mine against the wall.

As she passed me, she sent me another sly smile.

It took me a moment to remember how to move my legs. I followed her out.

* * *

 _Feed me that badass Rin and Len fluff. I live for it._

 _Thanks for reading guys :)_


	17. Chapter 17

"Remember, you two, do _not_ leave this hotel room unless we call you," Yuma said in a stern voice.

Rin rolled her eyes and pouted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You can leave now."

She wasn't very happy.

Flower, Yuma, Anon, and Kanon were all dressed in civilian clothes. They each had a suitcase, ready to blend into the crowd at the Monterrey International Airport.

It was four in the morning. We had arrived at our hotel room only a few hours ago in the dead of night. It only had two beds, so, of course, Yuma and I were kicked onto the couch and the floor, respectively. I had happily moved to one of the beds when they girls woke up to get ready.

It was here that I listened to the conversation with closed eyes.

"We'll call you with any updates," Kanon said. Her suitcase contained all of her gear. The four of them wore earpieces. Rin and I did not. "Here's the phone. Don't call _anyone_ with it-"

Rin huffed. "You guys are treating me like I've never done this before! I fucking know how this works!" The covers shifted slightly as she sat on the edge of my bed. "Just go."

They watched her frown for a moment. Finally, Flower spoke up. "We'll be back around midnight tonight."

"Alright," Rin responded with a low voice.

"See you then."

I rose a hand sleepily from under the covers to wave. "Bye guys," I muttered, thankful for the opportunity to finally sleep in without that stupid generator.

The four of them disappeared into the hallway.

I sighed, smiling into the soft pillow. My peace lasted only a few seconds. I let out a sharp gasp, more from surprise than pain, as Rin elbowed me in the side.

"If I have to wake up, you do too!" She said grumpily.

"Then maybe you should go to bed." I rolled over. "You sound like you could use some extra sleep."

"How the fuck am I supposed to sleep while they're out there doing who-knows-what?"

"They do it every time you go on missions. They stay at home and they sleep. Because they trust you."

She paused. I rolled onto my back to look at her.

"I'm just saying," I continued. "There's no point in worrying about it until we know something is wrong. So just go lay down and we'll, like, watch TV or something later."

The worst of her anger had ceased, but she wore her frown prominently. "I don't just… watch TV."

"Today you do," I concluded, rolling back over to my side. The disposable phone Kanon had given us sat on the side table between the two double beds. She knew its number. We didn't know theirs. The hotel room was still dark since the sun had not risen yet. In the moonlight, I could see Rin's pale outline sitting on the edge of my bed, her back to me.

After a moment, she wordlessly lied down next to me and closed her eyes.

When we woke up, the sun had risen, and the phone was ringing.

Rin was closest to it. She snatched it from the table and flipped it open. Her eyes were wide as she read the text.

"What's it say?" I asked with alarm. It was still early in the morning. The clock read nine am.

Her eyes scanned the screen. I was about to repeat my question when she finally answered. " _Found her this morning. Didn't see the flight she came in on. She's sure to come back tonight. We'll know then,"_ she read.

"Already?" My eyes widened at our luck. If we had been just a few hours late, we would have missed her completely.

Rin nodded, her free hand fiddling with the hem of her shirt in nervousness. "She's here."

I couldn't tell what was going through her head. Fear of Meiko? Worry for our friends? Some combination of both? I didn't know. "And they're just gonna stay at the airport all day?" I asked.

She nodded again. Her eyes were still glued to the screen. She was rereading the message.

In leaned back and let my head fall against the pillow once again. "At least we don't have to do any of the hard work," I joked.

There was no response.

"Rin, they'll be fine."

She stared at the phone.

"Put the phone down. Holding it isn't going to make them text you faster."

She frowned, making no attempt to put it down.

With a sigh, I leaned towards her, grabbing it from her hand. She didn't resist. I set it on the other table, opposite of her, and sat up. The hotel room was made up of two beds, one table between them and another two on either side. On the other wall was a dresser with a small TV resting on it. The bathroom was right next to the front door. We sat on the bed farthest from the front door, right next to the large window revealing the city below us. I remembered London, and how easily I had peered into Meiko's room through the window, with a shiver. I stood and pulled the blinds closed.

"Let's watch TV," I suggested. Rin had still not moved from where she held the phone. "They'll be back later. Maybe we can order some food or something." I walked over to the TV and angled it in the direction of our bed. The remote sat next to it. I grabbed it before crawling back to my spot.

"Oh shit," I said in surprise as I channel surfed. "They have the good cable. We can rent stuff. What do you want to watch?"

She glanced towards the TV. "I know nothing about cable. It's all up to you."

"You ever watch horror movies?" I asked with a grin.

"No. I don't watch any movies."

"We can rent the new _It_ movie."

"What's that?" The further into our conversation, the more relaxed she seemed to become.

"It's about this demonic clown guy. This is the remake of a movie made a while ago and they're both based on this book by a famous horror writer."

With a sigh, she leaned back, laying on the pillow next to me. "Clowns? Really?"

"Yeah. It's fucking terrifying."

She snickered. "Sounds lame."

"I bet we can't make it through the first ten minutes without you shitting yourself."

A laugh escaped her lips. "Hah! Have you met me?"

I considered her words. "You're right. Five minutes."

She crossed her arms defensively. "Len, I have been in _real life_ horror movies. I don't get scared."

"Have any of your contracts put you in a room with a shapeshifting clown named Pennywise?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He _shapeshifts?_ Oh lord." She laughed again. "This is gonna be good."

"We're watching it," I told her, clicking on the rental. It loaded, beginning to download the movie.

"Fine," she said, lying back again. "Have you seen it?"

"I've seen the original," I admitted. "But not this one."

"I bet _you_ will be the one shitting your pants in the first five minutes."

"Rin, before I met you guys, the only thing I ever watched was horror movies. Nothing scares me anymore."

"Just put it on," she said. "We'll see who's the bigger wimp."

The movie was terrifying and we were both wimps.

In the first scene with Pennywise in the sewer, Rin furrowed her brow. "He's… he's pretty creepy."

"That whole eye thing he does," I said. "With, like, one eye at the camera? They're uneven. I don't like it."

The end of the scene left us both wide-eyed and terrified.

"That was _not_ how I remembered that ending," I said.

Rin had pulled her knees into her chest.

"Blanket?" I asked, offering her the other side of the comforter I was under.

"Yeah," she said, her eyes still on the screen. "Yeah, I'll take that."

At the library scene, Rin hid behind the covers. "The fucking old lady in the back is watching him do you see her she's staring so creepily-" Her entire face was behind the covers except for her eyes, poking out from her shield curiously. "Don't you fucking dare follow that balloon Ben I _swear to God-_ "

The movie was scary, but Rin's reactions were much more entertaining.

"I hate this," she said with a laugh.

A few seconds later, at another scare, she hid once again.

I couldn't help but laugh at her. "Still lame?"

"Fuck you." She had ceased to be a person and was now a tall lump in the blanket.

The phone sat on the side table, completely forgotten.

The sky was dark once again when the phone finally rang.

We had been in the middle of another horror movie, after we took our break at the conclusion of _IT_ with a comedy and had prepared ourselves for another screamer, when the screen lit up.

I grabbed it.

"What's it say?" Rin asked next to me. We had ordered food from the lobby several times throughout the day. Our dishes sat on the table between the two rooms. Those cooks downstairs were _good._

" _Fairbanks, Alaska,_ " I read. "That's it."

Rin dropped her gaze to the blankets. "Makes sense. Most people probably think she was in Canada, like we did. But Alaska-"

"We need to get ready," I said, throwing the blanket off of me. "They'll be back any minute and I have a feeling we're getting on a plane tonight."

She groaned. "I'm getting sick of all this flying."

"Yeah," I agreed. "It sucks."

"And we're gonna fly _right over_ home, too."

"Yeah."

Rin sighed, glancing at the paused movie once more, before following my actions. "Just… just turn all the lights on. I don't wanna deal with that fucking clown jumping out at me from a corner or something."

I snickered, crossing the room to flick the light switch up.

* * *

 _Just a quick little intermission chapter. Before things get a little crazy. I'll be double uploading these chapters since I haven't updated in a while and this one was pretty short._

 _College started and I had absolutely no free time anymore so I've been forced to resort to writing my fics on my phone. That's why I've been more inactive :(_

 _I'll try my best to keep up, though! I promise!_

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	18. Chapter 18

_Disclaimer. My characters are dumb and Alaska is fucking awesome. I hope I get to go there someday._

* * *

"I hate Alaska," Kanon muttered as we emerged from our plane.  
"Not a fan of the cold?" I asked.

"No, I like the cold. It's just that the sun never goes down here."

We entered the terminal. Rin and I had our bags on us but the others needed to grab theirs from Baggage Claim. With my duffle on my shoulder, I glanced out the window. "What time is it?" I asked.

Yuma's eyes scanned the room for a clock. "It's 6:30."

We had flown throughout the night. I was beginning to get used to sleeping on planes. At this early hour in the morning, the sun was already high in the sky. I had never experienced anything close to a 24-hour day and I actually found myself looking forward to it. Standing outside at 11 pm in full sunlight seemed like a myth to me. Although I knew it was true, I'd only truly understand once I got to see it.

We all headed towards the claim. Rin and I kept our heads down and our hoods up as we walked, just in case Meiko or some of her allies were present in the airport. There was no sign of her so far. While we stopped in front of the baggage, Flower kept walking. She was in charge of getting our rental car. Yuma's forged documents were in her bag.

Only once we were in the car and on our way to the hotel did we feel safe enough to talk about the mission.

"We got lucky in Mexico," Yuma said from the passenger's seat.

Rin and I sat in the second row of seats while Anon and Kanon watched us from the back. "You can give yourself some credit," I said with a grin. "See? You know what you're doing."

He rolled his eyes and glanced at me over his shoulder. "The fact that you're here is proof that I have no idea what I'm doing."

I laughed.

"So what's next?" Anon asked.

"Basically the same thing," Flower said from behind the wheel. "We need to scout the airport. And when Meiko comes back, we have to tail her."

"You think she's somewhere in town?" Kanon asked.

"I doubt it," Rin answered for her. "She's not stupid enough to live in a city with this many people."

Flower sighed. "You're right. And that's what I was afraid of. She could be anywhere in this state. Tailing her is going to be next to impossible without being detected. We need to be careful."

It was summer, but the temperatures were still low in this Alaskan city. I was a bit surprised to see a lack of snow. I thought it was winter year-round up here.

"We have to split up our airport shifts," Flower continued. "Two people need to be there at all times. We'll do a day shift and a night shift. Twelve hours each."

Rin huffed. "Or you could do three shifts of eight hours and let Len and I actually help you guys."

"It's too risky," Flower scolded.

"What's the point of us being here if we're just going to sit around?" She argued.

"If she sees you, the whole plan will be ruined."

"I'm not just fucking doing nothing! I can't stand it."

Flower let out an annoyed huff. "How about this? You guys can go around town and see if you can find any leads. But stay the hell away from the airport unless we call you."

Rin crossed her arms next to me and said nothing.

"Deal?" Flower asked again.

Rin looked out the window with narrow eyes. She wasn't going to get anything better than that. "Fine."

Flower relaxed.

We reached our hotel a few minutes later.

Just like Mexico, we only booked one room, which earned the six of us a very confused look from the clerk. Everything was the same; two beds, a couch, a TV, a desk. The room itself didn't matter much. We weren't going to be staying here much.

After scanning the room for any unwanted devices, everyone began unpacking their items with the efficiency of machines. Anon pulled her medical supplies out of her bag neatly and arranged them on the desk in case of any emergencies. Kanon was in the process of checking through her tech, Yuma standing beside her doing the same. Flower was checking to make sure her guns hadn't been messed with.

Looking over Flower's bag of weapons, I wondered with grim amusement how catastrophic it would be to have switched bags with someone.

The only things Rin and I had to unpack were the stray items the others had stored in our bags.

"We'll do 6 am to 6 pm shifts," Flower said. "Anon, you're with me. You want day or night?"

"Day," she picked immediately.

Yuma groaned. "You're telling me I gotta sit around at the airport all fucking night?"

Rin let out a laugh. "Poor you," she mocked.

Flower shot the girl an annoyed glance. "Yes," she answered Yuma. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

He returned to his work with a sour expression. Next to him, Kanon wore a small smile.

"Well," Rin said. "We're leaving."

"Already?" Flower asked.

"I'm not staying here any longer than I have to," she continued.

I stood next to Rin silently. In this matter, I knew I didn't really have any other option.

"Don't get into any trouble!" Anon called cheerfully. How she could retain her good mood with these people surrounding her, I had no idea.

Rin had received the only confirmation she needed. With it, she started towards the door. I followed her.

"Be careful, Len," Flower said to me. Rin walked on, out of earshot.

I glanced back into the room. "I will."

"Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid," Flower concluded, turning back to her work.

"Len, come on!" Rin called from down the hall.

I blinked a few times at the room, then followed. Her words echoed in my ears. I had always thought it was Rin making sure _I_ wasn't doing anything stupid.

"Where are we going?" I asked her as we rode the elevator back to the ground floor.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I doubt there are actually any leads in the city to her whereabouts. Flower is just trying to keep us occupied."

I frowned. "Yeah. I know."

"It's stupid."

"But it makes sense," I countered.

She stared intently at the wall. "Meiko wouldn't do any of her business so close to home."

"But if she did," I offered. "What would it be?"

"There's no way-"

"Look," I interrupted. The doors had opened. I lowered my voice. "We don't want to just waste our time here. Who knows? Maybe she thinks she's safe enough here to deal, or whatever. We should assume that there are traces of her in the city and just try to find them."

"We'll be looking for nothing," Rin muttered.

"Then at least we'll have passed the time while everyone else fucks around at the airport."

She considered my words for a second. We crossed the lobby and pushed our way outside. I welcomed the fresh air into my lungs with a drawn-out breath. The city was completely surrounded in wilderness and mountains. The scenery wasn't too far from Montana, though the frost in the air was much more obvious here.

Rin started down the sidewalk in a random direction. "I guess," she finally said. "But what would she even do? Most of the time, it's not her doing the dirty work. She's like a receptionist or something."

I thought for a moment. "With an ally of Luka's nearby, you'd think the city would be full of drugs," I observed with a hint of amusement.

"There's no way Meiko is dealing so close to home."

"Maybe she's not. But I bet some of her…" I searched for the correct word. "... _friends_ are."

"Do you know how stupid that would be?" She asked. A car drove past us. "To let your little henchmen go out in public and do something so risky?"

"I'd bet she doesn't know. Think about it. You're working for this underground boss who probably doesn't pay you much, but there are assloads of drugs around your workplace with a college town nearby. Don't you think some of them would take advantage of that?"

"There's a college in this town?" She asked, looking around the street. We were the only two pedestrians to be seen.

"Yeah. University of Alaska. They have a campus in Fairbanks."

Her gaze fell to the sidewalk. "You… you might be right."

"It's a start, at least."

"So we're going to campus?" She asked.

"Why not? We could pass as college students."

She smiled a bit at this. We crossed a bridge over a wide river, which, according to the signs, was called the Chena, and headed to the northern part of town. The occasional directory signs along the way pointed us in that direction for the campus.

"Did you go to college?" She asked once we had strolled through the town and stepped onto the neatly arranged buildings of the campus.

"Yeah," I answered. "I graduated last year."

"What'd you study?"

I chuckled, looking away. _I should have known she'd ask that._ "...Nothing too interesting."

'What was it?" She pried. Now that we had reached campus, we were not alone on the sidewalks.

"...Industrial Design," I answered.

"What's that?"

"Just designing stuff for mass production. Like cars."

"You designed cars?"

"I wanted to." I glanced around at the people near us. Some students walked alone, some with friends. Some wore backpacks, some carried their books. Only a few short weeks separated the summer semester from the fall and it seemed like a few students had already returned from their summer vacation. Many sat around in groups talking and laughing. I noticed a trend of armbands on group members. Once I noticed them, I saw one everywhere I looked, many different colors and designs. People of the same band were usually the ones sitting together.

"Why didn't you?" Rin asked.

We passed another group of kids. I took a deep breath. "A job like that is only for the best of the best, you know?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you embarrassed to talk about it?"

"Well," _Yeah, kinda,_ I finished mentally. "It's, like… I went to an art school for it. It's basically an art degree."

"What's wrong with that?"

"I dunno. My friends used to tease me about it."

"Assholes," she muttered.

I couldn't help but chuckle at her concern. "Not, like, badly. It was just a joke we had."

"So…" she trailed off. "You're good at drawing and stuff?"

I shrugged. "I guess. I haven't done it in a while."

"Did you like it?"

"Yeah. It was fun. But even with my degree, I got a job that had absolutely nothing to do with design." I rubbed at the back of my neck. "Maybe that's why I… don't really like talking about it. It feels kinda like a waste of time."

"If you like something, it's never a waste of time," she said without looking at me.

"That's surprisingly wise of you to say," I said as we turned a corner.

She looked almost offended. "You think I'm stupid or something?"

I chuckled. "No, no. That's not what I meant." When she didn't respond, I asked, "What do you like to do?"

"What?"

"Like, what hobbies do you have?"

She let out a laugh. "There isn't much room for hobbies in my line of work, Len."

"Oh, come on. There has to be something." The buildings of the college were the only modern-style structures in the entire town. The further we walked through them, the more students we saw.

I glanced in her direction to see if she was going to respond at all. The gears in her head were turning. "I guess… I like reading," she said.

"There you go."

"But I don't get to do it very often anymore?"

"Why not?"

A sly smile pulled at her lips when I asked the question. "Because I spend all my free time training you."

I rolled my eyes. "Way to make me feel like an asshole."

"Don't," she answered in a lively tone. "It sucked at first but now it's kinda fun. Plus, you're almost done."

"I feel like I barely know anything," I admitted.

Her happy expression wavered slightly. "You proved yourself in London. You know what you're doing."

That was the closest she'd been to acknowledging her change in attitude since I'd carried her across the country on my back. Her snide confidence was almost completely gone and replaced by a nervous anxiety. I didn't mention it, though. I hoped that she would return to her old self soon.

I said nothing, letting my eyes wander over the students. It occurred to me that we didn't look so different from them. Figures. I was only a year older than these graduates and Rin was even younger than me. We perfectly fit in as a pair of college students.

"What's with all these things on people's arms?" Rin asked me.

"I dunno," I answered, following her eyes to another group of kids. Each of them wore sky blue bands around their biceps. They were all guys. "Maybe it's, like, a frat thing."

"A _what_ thing?"

"When you go to college," I explained, patient with her ignorance to the real world. "You can join these groups named after letters in the Greek alphabet. There are fraternities for guys and sororities for girls. Basically you all just move into this giant house together and throw parties and stuff. There's always this, like, hierarchy of groups, too. So whatever house you join basically determines your position on the social ladder."

"That sounds awful," she said. "The idea of living in a house with a bunch of other girls sounds horrible."

I shrugged. "There are some advantages to it. Like, a bunch of people meet their best friends in their Greek Life. It's not _all_ bad."

"Were you apart of it at your college?"

I shook my head with a laugh. "Oh no. I could stand the hazing."

"Hazing?"

In the center of campus was a little village of stores. There was one with University of Alaska gear hanging in the windows, one with plain old clothes, a food store with a multitude of people sitting inside, and a coffee shop hidden at the end of the stores.

"You hungry?" I asked her. We had been walking for a while and the strap of my duffle was beginning to wear on me. A snack sounded great.

She shrugged. "Sure. Where to?"

I glanced between the coffee shop and the cafeteria. "Looks like we have two choices."

"Let's go with that one," she pointed down the street after nervously eyeing the crowded room of the cafeteria through the windows.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Let's go there."

Minutes later, we sat together at the table, still chatting about college life. The coffee I had ordered steamed in front of me. It warmed me with every sip, feeling even better compared to the cold outside.

"This is weird," Rin said, glancing around the room.

"Why?" I rested my elbows casually on the table, raising my cup to my lips occasionally.

She hesitated before answering. "It feels like we're... normal."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with it. It's just weird. Like we're normal people."

The scent of coffee grinds soaked the air in the room. People littered the small cafe, some studying, some reading, some talking with friends, some sitting in even more groups of kids with even more bands around their arms. The sea of chatter drowned out our conversation from all those sitting around us. Not to mention we had chosen a seat where the only two people sitting near us each had headphones in.

"Normal college students," I joked, taking another sip.

"Where did you go to high school?" Rin asked.

"Florida."

"That's where your parents lived," she clarified. She knew that from Yuma's little background check on me before I found them.

"Yeah," I nodded. Somewhere behind the counter, someone spilled a drink. A wave of groans rose over the employees.

"Was it different from college?"

"Oh yeah," I said with a smile. "High school sucked. But college was cool."

"How's it different?"

I furrowed my brow. "You didn't go to-?"

"I never went to any school," she answered briskly. "My parents taught me how to count to ten and read. Everything else I learned from either books or the others."

I frowned. "How…?"

"I never existed," she said somberly. "Never had any birth certificate, no diploma, no nothing."

Being born into a life of constantly living underground, both figuratively and literally, seemed unbearably lonely to me. No wonder she was so jumpy going out like this.

The air grew thick around us.

"High school sucked," I answered her precious question in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood. "Everyone acts like a dick, the teachers didn't care about anything, and everyone was just trying to get out as quick as they could. But college was better because everyone was too broke to care about anything except passing their classes, which basically put everyone in this constant state of not giving a shit. It was like we were all in this together. The professors are more laid back, the people are nicer because of that whole sympathy thing. Plus, you get to study what you want. I never had to take any English classes in college because I tested out of them in high school. And I _hated_ English."

"You don't like reading?"

I shook my head. "Hell no."

She smiled shyly. "What is _wrong_ with you?"

Her questions continued forever, our topics eventually straying from school to jobs, stores, hobbies, holidays, and everything else she was completely ignorant to about the real world.

The light coming in through the window did not help at all in telling me what time it was.

"Have you been to an aquarium?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. We had refilled our drinks a few times now. Many of the people occupying the room when we arrived were long gone, replaced with the evening rush.

"No," she answered, swirling her drink with her straw. She had ordered some frap that looked more sugar than drink. "But we had a trip a few years ago where we ended up in a submarine near Costa Rica. So I've seen the fish."

"That must have been a big one."

She took a sip. "It was a lot of money."

"What about the zoo?"

Her eyes shied away from me. She shook her head.

"Do you know what a zoo _is_?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered with slumped shoulders. "I know what a fucking zoo is."

"Well you didn't know laser tag - anyway. Looks like we're going to the Fairbanks Zoo."

"Is there actually a Fairbanks Zoo?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. But if there is one, we're going."

She glanced out the window, then up at a clock across the room. "It's gonna have to wait. It's already seven."

"What?" I looked over my shoulder to see the clock for myself. Sure enough, it read seven pm. "It looks like it's noon outside."

"Kanon's right," Rin crossed her arms. "Alaska sucks."

"I kinda like it. Always daytime. It's literally a city that never sleeps."

"Psh," she let out a laugh. "You won't be saying that in a few hours when _you're_ trying to sleep."

When we arrived at the hotel room, Anon and Flower had already returned from their first shift at the airport. They were each passed out on one of the beds. Yuma and Kanon were long gone into their night shift. The room was silent.

They had closed the curtains when they arrived. These Alaskan hotels were forced to have thick, expensive curtains. Peering through them, I saw the city expanded before me as if in midday. But when they were closed, the room was almost pitch black.

And now we had an awkward sleeping situation to work through since the two of them decided they each needed their own bed.

"You can have the couch," I whispered once we had crossed the room. Neither of them stirred. "I'll sleep on the floor." I dropped my bag softly onto the floor, careful to keep quiet.

Rin set hers next to it without a response.

My mind flashed back to the night in London when she had cuddled up with me for the night and turned my blushing face away from her once I realized that she was probably thinking about the same exact thing.

"...Okay," she finally whispered, almost too soft for me to hear.

I pulled one pillow off the couch, grabbing an extra blanket from the closet. It was hard to keep quiet as I helped Rin pull the futon out. But we managed. Once she was settled on the springy bed, I curled up on the floor. I found myself unable to think of anything else but her warm figure pulled against me.

I let out a sigh, curling into a ball on the floor and clamping my eyes shut.


	19. Chapter 19

"There's no zoo," I told Rin, looking over the directory map we had retrieved from the Town Hall. "But there is a wildlife sanctuary."

"What's the difference?" She asked. We walked side by side down the walkway. Like the day before, we had found ourselves on the college campus.

"It's basically a national park. There are animals there but they're all wild and there are no guarantees we'll get to see them." I lowered the map. "What do you want to do?"

She looked around the scenery of campus. "I… I don't know. I kinda like it here."

"On campus?"

"Yeah. It's really cool."

To me, it seemed just as interesting as a brick wall. I folded the map back up and put it in my bag.

"What do you do for fun in college?" She asked, her eyes following a group of students as they ran across a field of green grass, kicking a soccer ball between them.

"Well, there's sports," I told her, watching them as well. "Some people join clubs, some people go to parties. There's plenty to do. Just depends on what you like." I lowered my hands into my pockets as I spoke.

"What did _you_ do?" She glanced at me curiously.

I shrugged. "My friends were huge basketball fans, so I played with them sometimes."

"That's the one with the hoops, right?"

I turned away to hide my smile. Her ignorance was almost cute. "Yeah. That's it."

She looked around. "Where are they?"

"What? The basketball courts?"

"Yeah."

I followed her eyes. "I dunno. Maybe there's a gym somewhere inside. Or maybe they don't have any."

She frowned. "That'd be stupid."

I rose my eyebrows at her. "You wanna play?"

A small shrug was her only response.

I grinned down at her. "Let's see if we can find one."

We blended in enough to confident enter the buildings of the commons and the classrooms. No one questioned us or even glanced in our direction. _Confidence really can get you anywhere,_ I thought.

"Those armbands are everywhere," she suddenly said. We passed another group of students, all girls, wearing pink and yellow on their arms. Amongst them was a single guy, standing in front of them with a confident smile. He was wearing a plain red one. He caught my attention right away. I hadn't seen any colors mingling the day before.

"Here," I said, stopping in front of an open door. I tore my gaze away from the guy, remembering all the creepy guys from my college who talked to girls like that.

Beyond the door was a large gym. Metal beams crossed on the ceiling just below the giant square skylights. On the walls were banners with all of the records the school held in every sport from swimming to baseball. Half of the court was taken up by a casual game. The other was empty. The sounds of the basketball dribbling across the court echoed with every hit.

The guys ran across the court, bobbing and weaving within each other trying to stop the ball. Their shouts and the shrieking of their sneakers on the ground earned Rin's full attention. She watched the game with wide eyes.

"That looks hard," she said.

"We're not gonna play an actual game," I assured her, walking to a cart full of basketballs.

"That's no fun," she pouted.

"You _want_ to play an actual game? Do you know how?"

"I'll figure it out," she said quietly.

I grabbed a ball and bounced it in her direction. She scrambled to grab it before it rolled into the game a few feet away from us.

"Your ball," I said with a sly smile. With my height advantage and experience, there was no way she could win.

She held it gingerly in her hands, glancing at me with wide eyes. And then, to my amazement, her expression completely contorted into a sly smile, her eyes narrowing and her stance widening.

In a single movement, she dropped the ball to the ground, dribbling it perfectly, and then jammed her elbow into my chest to block any attempts at swiping it. She pushed behind me, gently tossing the ball into the hoop with a _swish._

"Ah _hah!_ " She laughed victoriously. "I'm not as clueless as you think!'

"Where did that-"

"We had a hoop at our old-" she cut herself off, glancing towards the game once again. "Our old house. And I was the reigning champion."

"You could have _told_ me!"

She joined her hands behind her back smugly. "I wanted to see if I could surprise you."

I let out a laugh. "Well, you did."

She retrieved the ball from the ground and tossed it to me. "Your ball."

I decided to give her a taste of her own medicine and dashed forward right away.

"You ass!" She laughed, trying to jump between me and the hoop. "I wasn't ready!"

She was too weak to stop me. I rose my arms to shoot for the hoop, but a sudden swipe of her hand knocked the ball out of my hands.

"Wha-"

" _Hah!_ " She laughed again, dribbling back to the half court line. She may be short, but that girl could jump.

"Oh come on," I said with a grin, ready to jump after her. I stood between her and the hoop. Her eyes scanned the court around me, looking for easy paths past me. She wasn't going to find any.

She dribbled slowly to my right. _Of course. Taking advantage of my left-handedness._ I moved with her, constantly blocking her way to the hoop.

She was standing past the three-point line. Glancing up towards the hoop, she stopped, gathering the ball in both hands and throwing it.

My fingertips just barely brushed against it and the ball landed on the ground.

"That would have made it!" She protested. "You asshole!"

"I'm not just gonna let you score," I defended myself.

She glared up at me with that competitive smile I had become so familiar with. "This is war," she told me.

I grabbed the ball once more. "Bring it."

Neither of us kept track of the score. We barely noticed when the game next to us ceased and its players left, leaving us alone in the gym. Between every round, I checked to make sure our bags were safe. They were exactly where we had left them.

"Getting tired?" She taunted. I had kept better track of the time, making it a habit to glance at the clock every few minutes. We had already been here for almost an hour.

I rested my hands on my knees. "Yeah, actually. This is exhausting."

She hopped with the glee of a child. "We just got started!"

"How can you have that much energy?" I panted.

She smacked the ball once against the ground and picked it up again. "Come on. This is fun."

I let out a sigh. " _Fine._ Just a few more, though. I'm starving."

She ran for the hoop once more. When we were in the midst of our game, I hardly noticed how exhausted I felt. It was only between rounds did I feel ready to collapse into a heap on the floor.

A few tries later, I ran forward, dribbling the ball in my left hand, trying to take her off guard with a sweep right down the middle of the court. I pointed my right shoulder towards her to keep her short arms away from the ball. My elbow was planted firmly against her small figure.

I jumped forward, aiming for the hoop, my exhausted arms using her to push off of and propel me towards the hoop.

She fell to the ground. The impact of her hitting the court reverberated around us.

"Shit! Rin, I'm sorry!" I yelled, throwing the ball away from us and falling to my knees next to her. "I didn't mean to! I- ah, fuck. I'm sorry."

She sat up, rubbing her head. A small chuckle escaped her. "I think you gave me another concussion," she joked, all the liveliness in her voice gone in an instant.

She was joking, but I still felt like a dick. Without thinking, I rested a hand on the back of her head, turning it gently to the side to see the small scar left behind from London. It didn't look hurt in any way. I looked her over for any other new injuries. "I'm sorry," I pleaded. "I really didn't mean to-"

"It's-It's fine," she insisted, looking down at the ground as I inspected her for any signs of trauma. I was too busy turning her head over in my hands to notice the deep blush that had formed on her face. "Really," she said. "I'm fine."

I glanced towards our bags, lowering my hand from her head. "Let's go get food or something," I suggested as I stood.

"Yeah," she agreed. I held a hand out to her, which she hesitantly accepted, and I pulled her up from the ground. "I'm hungry," she muttered. We grabbed our bags.

The ball was still rolling aimlessly across the gym's empty floor as we left.

* * *

We hadn't spoken to any of our friends since we arrived. When Rin and I returned to the hotel room at night, Flower and Anon were passed out already. When we woke up in the morning, the two of them were replaced with Yuma and Kanon, who were also dead asleep. That night was no different.

"These guys are no fun," I muttered as we entered the dark room. Only tiny hints of the sun poked through the curtains. It was going down, finally, but the sky was going to remain lit in the fading colors of sunset until the next morning. As usual, Flower and Anon were snoring away in their beds.

"I know," Rin agreed, setting her back next to the couch. "I'm not even that tired. And they'll be pissed if we turn on the TV and wake them up or anything."

I frowned. "Well… what do you wanna do?"

She thought for a moment, peering out through the curtains next to me. "I know it sucks with the whole 'sun always up' thing, but you wanna know something really cool about Fairbanks?"

"What?"

Leaning away from the window, she glanced at me with a smirk. Not gonna lie, I didn't know what she was planning, but I was a little scared.

"You wanna see what _I_ like to do in _my_ free time?" She asked sneakily.

"Uh - do I?"

She grabbed my wrist. "Come on," she whispered, pulling me through the room once more.

We were already walking out of the lobby, entering the brisk air of the street when I remembered neither of us brought our bags. Rin had noticed too, but she didn't seem bothered by it. So I wasn't going to be, either.

"Where are we going?" I asked her. We were walking back towards campus. The city was devoid of life. It was almost midnight, after all. It looked almost eerie. All the same buildings that had bustling with activity only a few hours ago were abandoned now in what seemed like dusk.

We had nearly reached the campus. Next to us was a line of shops we had passed several times in the last few days. They were cute little brick buildings, varying in height and thickness, with everything from clothes to cooking ware to furniture displayed in the square windows. They reached down the entire street, past where we had entered and stretching further from where we turned off. I was in the midst of admiring them when Rin suddenly veered to the right between a closed bakery and a dark-windowed boutique. "You'll see," she sneered.

"Dark alleys? I'm worried."

"Oh come on. You can trust me."

"Can I?" I joked.

She shot me a glare before disappearing further between the buildings.

 _I don't really have anything to lose,_ I figured. With a deep breath, I jogged after her into the alley.

The walls were narrow on either side of. We dodged trash cans and stray animals as we made our way behind the building. Against the brick wall, there was a steel ladder.

"Up we go," she said with a smile.

"What is it with you and roofs?"

"Probably the danger," was her casual reply.

"Fair enough." Once she had pulled herself up a few feet ahead of me, I climbed on after her.

I crawled onto the cement roof of the bakery. The roof, as well as those around it, were littered with pipes and maintenance rooms, creating a very dangerous playground about twenty feet over the street in some places, more like forty in others. The city was dead quiet. From our new vantage point, I could see beyond further throughout the darkened city. The dark, but not quite black sky only heightened the appearance.

"It's creepy," I said aloud. To the right of our building was another small store equal in height, to our left was a similar brick structure with a roof that stood an extra floor higher.

Rin was standing uncomfortably close to that edge of the roof, peering over the side. "You think so?"

I nodded, watching her, ready to jump in case she slipped.

"I think it's peaceful," she disagreed.

Glancing at the scene once more, I shrugged. "Maybe." I turned back to her as she backed away from the ledge.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words caught in my throat as Rin suddenly ran forward, jumping off of the roof and barely reaching the top of the building next to us with her fingertips. For a miserable moment, she hung from the building, a dangerous drop below her, before she let out a huff of air and pulled herself up.

"Rin!" I shouted as she disappeared over the edge of the roof over me. "What the fuck was that?"

Her smiling face peered down at me from the neighboring roof. "Too scared?" She asked with a laugh.

"That fall could have-"

"Don't chicken out now!"

"You really expect me to jump up there-"

"Yes!" She yelled, her voice full of that childlike laughter. "Now hurry up! Before I leave without you?"

"Leave without-" I muttered to myself, peering over the edge just like she had done. The drop wasn't enough to kill me, probably, but it was definitely enough to seriously injure me. And that was the last thing we needed on this mission. I could imagine the infuriated looks of the others if they learned what we were doing. _Nothing like a good roof jump to cripple your killers._

"Fucking hell, Rin, are you serious!"

"It's not as bad as it looks! Just aim for the rooftop!"

"Not as bad as it looks? You barely made it!"

"That's because I'm barely five feet tall, Len! Come on! You have twenty seconds!"

"Motherfucker," I said to myself, backing away a few steps. What the hell was I doing? Never in a million years would I have imagined jumping off of a roof to follow a crazy short girl through this deadly playground. And yet, here I was.

"Come on, Lenny~" she sang. Her voice was the only sound in the dead city except for my pounding heartbeat.

I closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and ran. At the last inch of pavement, I hurled myself from the roof. I found myself floating in open air for a terrifying second. My arms stretched out in front of me. Time itself seemed so slow. Rin was watching me, her smile faltering just a bit as she watched me. _I missed. I missed it._

I didn't miss it.

I grabbed onto the ledge just in time, hearing another sweet laugh and feeling arms assist in pulling me up.

I scrambled to my feet, even higher from the ground than before. My arms were trembling.

"See?" She grinned. "Not so bad."

"Not so bad? Rin, this is horrible-"

"We're just getting started," she promised.

"I am _not_ doing that again."

Her expression lowered into a pout. "Don't tell me you didn't feel just a _little_ rush from that? It wasn't all bad, was it?"

My chest and shoulders heaved as I tried to steady my breathing. I wasn't tired, yet I could not help but tremble at the fact that I had been inches away from a very painful night or worse. I was barely able to stand on my two legs as I tried to calm myself down.

And yet, there was something else. Something other than fear. Something other than anger towards Rin for being so stupid. Something that made my blood feel as if it were coursing with electricity.

I lowered my gaze from her dumb grin, still too angry with her to admit that it was extremely-

"Thrilling, huh?" She answered for me. Her hands on her hips, her smug smile - she knew she had me. "Told you. I'm a sucker for the dangerous stuff."

The roofs expanded beyond us. It was much easier to see their twists and turns from up here. The best part about this jump was that we were now on one of the tallest buildings. There would be very few, if any, jumps upwards after that.

She hopped on the balls of her feet. "You ready?" She asked.

"For what?" The anger was still in my voice, though it was quickly being overrun with my curiosity. I guess I could understand why she liked being up so high.

Those blue eyes gleamed. "Our race," she answered.

"Race?"

She pointed behind her. "See that down there? That sign?"

I followed her gesture. Far across the rooftops, on a building lower than this one but an incredible distance away, was a neon sign. Only half of it was visible behind a small room growing out of the building it was built on like a tumor. The brick walls jutting into the sky stretched over the sign. There was a ladder on the side of it.

"First one there wins."

I gawked at it. Between us and our destination was a jungle of pipes, electrical boxes, and even more heart-pounding jumps over alleyways identical to the one we had just entered through.

"And if one of us dies?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "We've done more dangerous things before. Plus, it's good practice. In case we ever need a rooftop escape on a mission."

Her point made sense, but not enough to completely convince me. "Everyone else will be pissed when they find out-"

"Who says they have to know?"

I widened my eyes. "I didn't know you kept secrets from them."

She frowned. "Not big ones. Just a little white lie won't hurt anybody."

"It will if one of us slips and _dies,_ Rin."

She waved a hand at me. "I'm going. You coming with?"

It was stupid. It was dangerous. It was probably going to kill me.

"I guess."

Her frown evaporated, replaced with that dazzling smile once more. "You're on." She set her right foot forward. "Right here. On the count."

I desperately scanned the area before me, trying to find the quickest, and, more importantly, the safest path to our destination.

"If you're scared," Rin taunted. "You can just let me go first and follow."

"Fat chance," I answered with amusement.

" _There's_ the Len I know."

Straight ahead was jump with about a five-foot drop to the neighboring rooftop. It looked easy enough, especially compared to the monster I had just crossed. To my right was a building yet another story taller, no doubt the tallest around, with a window I could use to climb up. It would take me some time, but after I reached the top, it would be smooth sailing.

"You ready?" She asked.

"I… I guess," I replied, focusing on scouting my path more than my words. _Rin knows this place best. Maybe you should just follow her and then pull ahead at the last minute._ It was an idea. A safe idea.

She nodded. "Three."

 _Follow Rin. Follow Rin. Follow Rin._

"Two."

My heart thudded painfully in my chest. This was it. This was how I'd die.

"One."

" _Go!_ "

There were some birds on the building across from us. They bolted away, squawking in protest as we leaped across the gap, sprinting across the gravel.

* * *

 _You guys ever seen those extreme parkour videos online? I watched some to get a sense of what roofrunning is like and og my god people are fucking crazy. Just watching that stuff makes my heart pound._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	20. Chapter 20

The second jump was a little less scary and a lot more exhilarating. It was a drop. I landed with bended knees while Rin broke her fall with a skilled somersault upon landing.  
Rin was naturally faster than me, so it was no surprise when she sprinted a few steps ahead. She was exactly where I wanted her; ahead enough so I could see what she was doing, but close enough that I could easily overcome her with a burst of speed.

She sprinted across the rooftop, vaulting over a line of pipes effortlessly. I followed her. As I set my hands against the metal to jump over them, I almost flinched at their heat. If I had rested my hand there any longer, I would have had a nasty burn. Even after a second or two, my hand tingled with slight pain. I had no choice but to ignore it.

This roof had a metal railing around it. Rin hopped onto the edge and jumped another gap. On the third jump, I didn't even look down. Doing so would surely make my head spin. In a race like this, getting dizzy was a death sentence.

She angled off to the left, aiming for the building behind our current platform. It was another big jump. Her feet left the ground, she hovered for a moment in the air, and then stumbled a bit as she landed on the roof. She was fine. Just lost her balance for a moment.

I crossed the gap easily. I couldn't help but glance down. The alley below us was empty, but I imagined how odd it would be to stand down there, look up, and see some stupid kids jumped across the roofs. The absurdity of the sight amused me.

I didn't stumble when I landed. My advantage gained me some distance on her.

From there it was a straight shot to the sign. It was still several buildings away, but not nearly as far as it had looked before. The path didn't look as threatening before, probably because my heart was beating in my throat at this point and my arms and legs were burning with fatigue and adrenaline. The excitement of the situation was drowning out the danger.

We jumped over another gap. My confidence had increased to the point where I figured I could maneuver the roofs without Rin guiding me, so I increased my speed until we ran shoulder-to-shoulder.

Another jump. Our paces were almost in complete unison. Another jump. We were still about twenty feet off of the ground. Every jump was a chance to slip. Another jump.

Rin let out a laugh. I felt my own grin stretch across my face. My arms pumped at my sides and propelled me forward.

On a rooftop ahead, there was a slanted wall sticking out of the gravel. It ended on another flat roof with a door under it. No doubt a staircase.

" _Big jump!_ " Rin yelled between pants. She dashed onto the angled roof, climbed up to the top, and jumped. I did the same.

My breath caught in my throat as we flew over a gap that was much bigger than any of the others. Below us was a little grassy area with a sidewalk running through it. Probably a six or seven foot cross. For the second time that night, time seemed to slow as we flew through the air together. She was slightly ahead of me now, her hair blowing wildly behind her face, her clothes ruffling in the wind, and another adrenaline-fueled laugh escaping her lips. The deadened city beyond us didn't seem so scary anymore.

Just as quickly as it had started, our jump ended, as we both landed on the roof at the other end. Rin nimbly jumped to her feet, screaming out curse words in success, while I stumbled and fell clumsily to my knees.

"Holy shit," I breathed, rising to my feet.

"That was fucking awesome, right!?" She was yelling. "Now get up! We're not there yet!"

"Jesus Christ, you scare me."

She laughed again.

I slowly rose to my own two feet, staring down at the roof.

Her smile faltered a bit. "Hey, are you o-"

When she was caught off guard, I dashed forward.

" _Motherfucker!_ " I heard her running steps start behind me.

I had the upper hand, now. There was only one more jump before the final ladder. I leaped across, completely immune now to the fear of falling, and ran for the ladder. The air was growing colder by the second. The adrenaline in my veins, though, kept me completely warm.

Just as I was about to reach the ladder, I felt a hand press onto my side and push me out of the way.

"Not fair!" I yelled as Rin jumped ahead of me, planting herself on the first few feet of the ladder. I skid to a halt, nearly running into her back.

She turned her head to look at me over her shoulder. "That's payback for your little basketball stunt," she said with a sly smile.

My shoulders slumped. "Come on, Rin. I told you I was sorry."

"I'm _kidding_! Come on."

I rolled my eyes, letting her climb a few feet up once again before I followed her. The neon sign was illuminated now, casting light blue and purple glows over the street below. The small maintenance shed on the roof reached higher than it.

I pulled myself onto our final rooftop to see Rin already sitting at the edge. Her legs dangled dangerously over the edge, as if she didn't see the multistory drop to the cement below her. But after our run, I didn't feel so unsafe either. This roof was a small square, the size of a small bathroom, probably. She was sitting at the western end with her hands folded neatly in her lap, watching the scene beyond. It was campus, with the mountains in the background, all illuminated by the night-long sunset. It had to be midnight, maybe later by now, but the light blues and purples of the sun were visible over the mountains.

"Have you been here before?" I asked her. She knew the rooftops so well, I had to ask.

She nodded. Her shoulders were rising and falling steadily as she tried to catch her breath. Her words were stolen by the view.

I sat next to her, lowering my legs over the side as well. All it would take was one little push and I'd be falling to my death. Resting my hands on the rocky surface of the roof behind me, I leaned back and admired the view.

"I think I like your version of fun more," I admitted, still shaking a bit from our trip.

She let out a laugh. Her victorious grin had been replaced by her usual, more reserved smile. But the light in her eyes had died out. "I think yours is better."

"Psh." Our voices echoed throughout the city below us. "No fucking way. That was awesome."

She hesitated before continuing. "I like the thrill, but I honestly think I like the safety more."

"Really?"

She didn't look at me as she spoke. "Just… Going to laser tag. Sitting around campus. Doing things that normal people do. I've never had that before. And... and I really like it. I just-" she cut herself off.

She had been acting so odd since London and I was beginning to see why. Being at the other end of the contract had completely changed her view of things. "You just don't want to do this anymore," I finished for her.

She lowered her eyes and said nothing.

I shrugged. "Being normal isn't everything it's cut out to be. Everyone has their own problems."

She let out a small unamused laugh. "Not problems like we're having."

"Yeah," I admitted. "Definitely not like that."

"I'd… I'd give anything to be normal."

I could never imagine Rin as a little housewife, cooking and cleaning before her kids came home from school. I could never imagine Rin at a desk job, answering phone calls and speaking with people like she was never a public menace before. It seemed impossible to me. But maybe not to her.

"Why can't you?" I asked her.

She looked at me like I was the dumbest person alive. "What kind of question is that?" She responded, her gaze traveling to the mountains once more. A moment passed as she tossed the idea over in her head. "...I can't just leave everyone."

"I'm sure they'd understand."

"Yuma would have to make me an entire new life. He'd have to make me a name, a birth certificate, a high school diploma, all sorts of records. How could I ask him to do that? And what would the others say?"

"They'd probably ask you to stick around for Luka," I said with a hint of amusement. "But after that, I bet they'd let you go."

Her brow furrowed in thought. "...I don't know if I could leave everyone. How am I supposed to function without you guys?"

I shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe they want to leave, too."

"Hah," she smiled once again, but her eyes were still dark. "You want to tell Flower that she can't spend our millions of dollars anymore? Good luck."

"I don't know how much you guys have, but I'd bet it's enough to sustain you for the rest of your life."

"I'm not taking their money," she said. "I'll just have to get a job or something."

"You earned it. You should get to keep some."

"What would you do?"

The question took me off guard. "What?"

She looked up at me. Her shoulders were relaxed and her eyes watched me curiously. "What would you do if I left?"

Damn, what _would_ I do if she left? I didn't even think about that. I'd be the only killer in our team, then. I'd be going to destinations on my own, planning these attacks on alone, collecting payment by myself. One slip up and I would be dead, all my friends exposed. It seemed like an awful life. And yet Rin had lived it since she was born.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I'd kind of like to leave, too. But I don't think I have as much of an option as you."

"Why not?"

"Because I just got here," I responded with a smile. "I don't think everyone trusts me enough to keep quiet, yet."

Rin paused, then erupted into an unexpected fit of laughter. I stared at her with wide eyes. _Was it something I said?_

"Len," she said. "You could have easily left me to die in London. Or you could have kept quiet about the bombs in China and let us _all_ die on that trip. You had so many opportunities to leave, betray our trust, or kill us, and you did none of those things. I'm pretty sure everyone trusts you now."

"I mean… I guess," was all I could answer with.

She took a deep breath. "Where would you go? If you left, too, I mean."

I had an advantage over her. I knew the ways of the world, I knew where to go and where not to go. But when I had lived in the public eye before, I had a life established already. I had friends, I had a family (even if they were a distant one), I had an education, I had a job. This was the definition of starting on a clean slate. I'd have to choose all of those things once again. I could go back to school if I wanted to. Or I could hop straight into another job. The limits of Yuma's forging power were unknown to me, but maybe I could even get away with having _no_ job and just living in peace for the rest of my life. I was only twenty-three. What would I do for the remaining seventy years of my life? I had no idea.

"It's like I forgot how to live," I said aloud.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, there's a pattern when you live like a normal person. You go to school, you graduate. You get a job. You get married. You have kids. You raise kids. You have grandkids. You die. And it's so… so boring. I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

"That's… horribly depressing," Rin said softly.

I chuckled. "Yeah. Kinda. Maybe that's why doing... _this_ -" I gestured between us. "-was so easy for me. I found a way to interrupt that cycle, I guess. Before, I was just constantly under this pressure that I needed to be doing _something_. But here, I didn't really need to worry about that."

"I like the idea of doing nothing," Rin admitted. "Just sitting around the house watching TV. It sounds amazing."

"It'll get old real quick, I promise."

She blinked softly.

I took her silence as a hint to continue. "It's almost like the pressure to have a good life is enough to make you _not_ have a good life, you know? People always used to tell me to 'enjoy it while it lasts,' but the pressure of making sure you're living the best life you can is what makes people live shitty lives. Everyone tries so hard not to waste their time while they still have it."

Her feet kicked aimlessly over the edge. "If you spent your life doing things you enjoy," she told me. "Then it isn't a waste."

Her words were so obvious and yet so hard for most people, including me, to grasp. Before, I just went with the flow, not really caring about what was going to happen next. I was fully prepared to follow that same life cycle that the rest of the human race had followed. Now, I wasn't so sure.

"You didn't answer my question," she said quietly.

"Which one?"

"Where would you start over?"

I didn't know what job I would want, if I would even want a job. I didn't know what school I would want to go, what city I would want to live in, the friends I would want to have. I knew none of that. But there was one thing I was _sure_ I wanted.

"Where you go, I go," was my answer.

She looked up at me, watching me with wide eyes. Whatever answer she was expecting, it definitely wasn't that.

She held my gaze for a moment, looking up at me as if waiting for something. A blush appeared on her cheeks and she lowered her eyes shyly in response. Another small smile had formed at her lips.

With a small sigh, she leaned her head onto my shoulder while we watched the one a.m. sunset together.

* * *

 _Sorry for the random updates! College is kicking my ass and I'm trying to write in the very little free time I have._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	21. Chapter 21

On our sixth day in Fairbanks, Rin and I found ourselves in the cafe on campus once again.

We had just entered the building in an attempt to escape from the cold. With each day, the temperature dropped further and further. The seasons were about to change once again from summer to fall.

"I want a coffee," Rin said, lowering her hood from her head and removing her hands from her pockets.

"I'm down," I told her, stepping in line behind a girl tapping incessantly on her phone. Rin stepped next to me.

"I'm starting to think we'll be here forever," she said softly, looking around the room.

"It's barely been a week. We'll find her."

"Hopefully. I miss the night time."

Couldn't argue with that. "What are you gonna get?" I asked her.

Her eyes scanned the menu. "I'm not sure. Something warm."

The cafe was the most crowded we had ever seen. It was dinnertime on a Monday and my only guess as to why there were so many people was that some of the students had returned for their upcoming classes. The uproar of laughs, shouts, and general conversation was almost deafening. Not to mention the line was almost out the door.

I looked around the crowd, my eyes falling on a group of guys in the back-left corner near Rin and I's usual table. I furrowed my brow.

"Rin," I lowered my head. "Look who's sitting by our table?"

Her eyes followed mine.

There were around ten of them, each wearing that same red armband. They had caught my eyes so quickly because, during our week exploring campus, I had never seen more than one of them at the same time.

She narrowed her eyes. "Is it a thing for frats to be fourth-years only?" The line moved up.

"They're not a frat," the girl in front of us suddenly turned to face us. _Guess we weren't being as quiet as I thought._ "I'm the Greek Life Coordinator here. And they're not a frat." The girl was shorter than me but taller than Rin. A satchel sat on her hip, strung over her shoulder and hidden by her long blonde hair. It looked more white than yellow. We all stepped forward again as the next customer was served.

"Who are they, then?" Rin asked.

The girl shrugged. Whoever she was, she looked important. She held her chin up and had that determined glare in her eyes. Her phone was still in her hand, now lowered to her side. "Honestly," she said, her gentle features at an odd contrast with her assertive stance. "I don't even think they go here. They're just some creeps who wanna talk to college girls." She spat the words out like they were sour.

"Creeps?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Rin listened to the girl intently.

She brushed a stray strand - a braided one - out of her face. "I dunno. They creep me out. Always trying to hit on the freshmen, even though they look like they're thirty. It's sketchy."

"Next in line!" A barista called.

"Don't talk to them," she advised us. "They're nothing but trouble." She turned away from us and walked up to the counter to order her drink.

Rin and I exchanged knowing glances. It was highly unlikely that an organized group of "sketchy" people showed up in this town and didn't belong to Meiko.

"That explains the red," I said quietly. That girl had successfully eavesdropped on our conversation. Luckily, she hadn't heard anything important, but I still lowered my voice further.

Rin nodded, glancing towards them. "Yeah. What should we do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, should we go talk to them?"

I gawked at her. "About what? Just walk up and say, 'Hey, guys! You happen to know anyone by the name of Mei-"

Rin slapped a hand over my mouth. "Don't say her name, idiot! We don't want them to hear us."

I kept my eyes trained ahead of me. Rin, however, wasn't hiding the fact at all that she was staring those guys down.

"Rin, quit it."

"What?"

"Stop _looking_ at them."

"Why? I think I might recognize some of them."

"You don't want them to know that you're staring."

They were talking incredibly loud. Like they _wanted_ everyone to look at them. One of them rose his voice. "Ted, shut the fuck up!" He yelled from their corner with another fit of laughter.

She let out a huff. "They're too busy trying to get everyone's attention with their loud ass voices." A scoff escaped her. "I mean, really. Who laughs that obnoxiously?"

"Next in line!" A voice called. I stepped forward to order our drinks.

"Look," I said as we moved off to the side, waiting for our drinks. "I think we should lay low, go back to the hotel, and tell the others. Maybe they can help us figure out a plan to get some info from these guys."

Her glare continued. "They tried to kill me."

"Well, _they_ didn't."

"Their boss did. Their friends did."

I crossed my arms. Her desire for vengeance was overcoming her rationale. "Rin. We had seen them every day since we got here. They're not going anywhere. I'm sure we'll get the chance to kick the shit out of them soon. Not. Now."

Her hands rested on the strap of her duffle bag. Inside was her pistol and her baton.

"Rin," I warned.

"I fucking know," she spat, watching the men with hatred in her eyes.

The barista called for our drinks. I handed Rin's to her, purposely standing between her and the group behind us.

"Let's go," I said.

"Why?"

"Because if we stay, you're going to do something stupid."

She rose her voice. " _I'm_ going to do-"

I grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the store before we caught anyone else's attention.

She pouted all the way back to the hotel.

* * *

"Where the _fuck_ have you two been?"

When we walked in the door, we were met with a sight we did not expect. Kanon and Yuma, who were supposed to be watching the airport, were standing in the darkened room with the only light coming from a single lamp on the bedside table. Yuma was standing, pacing back and forth through the room, his hair disheveled from where he had run his hands through it in his distress. Kanon sat on the edge of the bed, hugging herself with a pained expression. Even as we entered, she did not look up from the floor.

Rin's eyes widened in alarm. "What? What happened?"

"Flower and Anon didn't come back from watch."

Yuma's words caused an obvious flinch from Kanon.

" _What?_ Tell me everything," Rin demanded. It was about nine pm. The sun had just entered its night-long sunset.

I threw my empty drink into the trash can and dropped my bag to the floor as he recounted the day.

"We have this system where we all meet at a certain spot in the airport to pass of shifts to each other. This morning, Flower and Anon showed up right at six to take over our watch and told us to go home. And then, a few hours ago, we went to go relieve them of their watch. And they never showed up."

Kanon lowered her head into her hands.

"So we figured, maybe they came straight back here. We stayed at our meeting spot for at least an hour before we came back here to check for them. And they weren't here. And neither were you." There was a slight accusing tone in his voice.

Rin's expression contorted into anger. "We were looking for clues, Yuma! Don't fucking talk to me like that!"

"If you were here, you might have seen them before they disappeared!"

"Motherfucker, I-"

"Guys!" I yelled, glancing at Kanon. Her shoulders began to gently heave. She was crying.

Yuma and Rin each glanced in her direction, ceasing their bickering right away.

"A-Anon," Kanon muttered through her sobs. "She's… she's my only family. What am I gonna _do_?!"

Yuma crossed the room to sit next to her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulder. If the situation hadn't been so tense, I would have made fun of him for it.

Rin sighed. "Did… did you find any of their stuff?"

"...No," Yuma answered, keeping his eyes trained on the crying girl next to him.

"That's good," Rin responded. "That means they took it with them, wherever they went. They still have their gear."

 _Unless found them and took it,_ I thought grimly. I wasn't the only one unsure of the safety of our friends, either. But no one dared to speak their concerns aloud with Kanon in her current state.

"You think they found her?" I asked.

"That's my guess," Rin answered.

"Then why wouldn't they call us?" Kanon wailed. "Why didn't she call me?"

"When you're following someone, you have to keep quiet sometimes. Maybe they didn't get the chance."

"But when they're in the car-"

"Kanon, calm down," Yuma told her gently.

"What if they're in trouble!" She said into her hands. "What if Meiko…"

"There's nothing but wilderness around us," I told her. "They probably don't have reception."

Kanon fell silent. Her tears continued.

"So…" Rin trailed off. "What do we do?"

"We have to wait," I answered. "We don't really have a choice."

"How long do we wait before we leave?" Yuma asked.

Kanon let out a wail at the question.

"Let's just… let's just give them 24 hours. If we don't hear from them, we'll start planning our next move," I suggested. The red armbands were pushed to the back of my mind at this point.

"What… what even _can_ be our next move?" Yuma asked desperately.

"Let's not think about it now."

"What are we supposed to do, then?!" Kanon yelled. "Just go to bed and pretend they're not out there? Just hope that they're not trapped, or dead, or tortured, or-or…" She lowered her tear-stained face into her hands once more.

"They know how to handle themselves," Rin said softly. "They're okay. Wherever they are. So… yeah. We should try to sleep it off."

Kanon shook her head wildly in protest but leaned back onto the bed behind her. She crawled weakly under the covers. Her sobs did not cease.

Yuma watched her sadly for a moment before laying on top of the covers next to her. Our conversation had ceased, but the heavy air did not go away.

What would we do without them? No doctor to help us when we get hurt, no one to scout our missions, and, most importantly, less of our team to stay with? Spend time with? It was Flower who taught me how to shoot. It was Anon who saved my broken leg when I first arrived. I had not a single memory of either of them that wasn't a happy moment. And I had only known them for a fraction of the time the others had.

Especially Kanon.

 _Oh, God._ I thought, sighing softly. Rin glanced at me. Neither of us dared exchange a word. I nodded towards the empty bed, gesturing her to take it for the night, and started for the couch myself. But, as I passed her, Rin grabbed the back of my shirt. I shot her a questioning look.

With her sad expression, her eyes darted to Yuma and Kanon laying silently next to each other on the left bed. She glanced at the empty one next to them, then back up to me. There was a gentle tug on the back of my shirt.

I took the hint.

The four of us sat in the darkness without a word. But, for a long time, none of us fell asleep.

As for me, I didn't fall asleep at all.

It was nearly five in the morning when I finally felt Rin relax in my arms. Her breathing softened, her skin around her shut us relaxed as she fell asleep. Careful not to wake her, or the other two sleeping in the bed across from us, I slid out from the covers and began to dig through my bag restlessly.

I didn't know what I was looking for, but laying in the bed doing nothing didn't feel like an option to me. I couldn't sit there doing nothing. It didn't feel right.

I had been digging through my bag for less than five minutes when I heard footsteps in the hall.

 _Footsteps? At five in the morning?_

And then the handle on the door inches to my right jiggled.

I jumped to my feet. My first thought was that Anon and Flower had indeed been captured and now Meiko's goons were after us. It wouldn't have taken them long to find us at all. We had seen them only a few hours ago-

I froze as the door opened. The light of the hall blinded me for a moment, but the unmistakable forms of the two missing girls appeared in the doorway. And they were unharmed.

"What the fuck, guys?" I said to them, waking the entire room in the process.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Anon pleaded as soon as the door was shut. "We couldn't find a signal in these woods! I tried! I really did…"

The lamp next to the bed turned on and Kanon jumped into her little sister's arms the next second.

"You bitch!" She screamed through her tears. "You scared the shit out of me."

Anon hugged her back. "I'm sorry…" she said again. Her eyes were full of remorse. I was just glad they were okay.

"What happened to you two?" Rin asked, sitting up. Her legs formed small mounds through the thick comforter.

"We found her," Flower said. She set her bag on the end of Rin's bed. "Now, we need to talk."

"About what?" Yuma asked. He sat at the edge of his bed as well.

"About the plan." Flower took a deep breath. "We saw her returning from a flight around five pm. We tailed her and a few of her guys out of town. She took the highway northeast and then exited back south. We circled a mountain range on the way there. Eventually, we had to let her turn off the road without following her. She would have caught on, then."

"So where is it?" I asked. "Where's she hiding?"

"We don't have the exact location," Flower continued. "But she turned onto a dirt road when we stopped tailing her. I can find it again. She has to be somewhere down that road."

"How far away?" Rin watched Flower intently.

"It was about a five-hour drive. And we still didn't find the place."

"So you even know what her base looks like?" I crossed my arms. "Do we know what we're looking for?"

No one answered for a moment. Which meant we had no idea.

"I doubt she's in a bunker," Flower continued, lowering her eyes to her bag. "She's too… _flashy_ for something so low-key."

"I agree," Rin responded. "I don't think it will be hard to find."

The sisters were watching the conversation from the door, still holding onto each other. Kanon frowned. "But if we don't know what we're heading into, how can we plan for it?"

"We'll be planning the raid itself when we get there. We'll probably have…" Flower turned her thoughts over in her head. "Maybe ten or fifteen minutes to scope the place and make a move."

"Fuck," Yuma sighed, scratching his head.

"And after, we'll have to just take the car back and drive straight to the airport."

"Where will we go?" I asked.

"Hopefully, we'll find the answer to that question in Meiko's base." Flower stared at her bag as she spoke. "So far, the only plan we have is as follows. Pack our shit up and head for the mountains. Hopefully, we'll find her without too much trouble, and then we'll go in, try to find her computer, steal her data and _kill_ her on the way out." Flower looked at Yuma with those last words.

"We didn't agree on that," he answered.

Flower shut her mouth. We had been putting off the feud deciding Meiko's fate. And, by the dismissive look she gave him, it wouldn't be solved now, either.

"When we leave," Flower continued. "We'll head back into the escape car and drive straight to the airport. I'll find our tickets for the next flight there."

"And then Luka," Kanon said.

Flower nodded. "And then Luka."

I glanced at Rin. She was looking down at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. Her shy demeanor had taken over once again. We were thinking the same thing. If she was ever going to tell the others of her plans, this would be the time.

Sensing my eyes on her, she glanced up at me.

"Rin?" Flower asked, noticing the girl's tense movements. "Something to add?"

Her expression tensed.

"Go on," I encouraged her. The four pairs of eyes belonging to our squad darted between the two of us.

Rin sighed. "Goddammit," she said.

"What's wrong?" Anon asked.

She took another deep breath and began. "I've… I was born into this. I've lived my whole life in the dark, switching from bunker to bunker, hotel room to hotel room, country to country. It's all I've ever known. And I've been perfectly fine with it. B-but after… after London, I-" she cut herself off, the eyes of her colleagues clearly making her uncomfortable. "After London, I started to wonder what it would be like if I _hadn't_ been born into this."

"What are you saying?" Yuma asked.

She lowered her head shamefully. "...After Luka's dead, I want to leave."

Silence.

The others stared at her wordlessly, their eyes widening and their stunned expressions taking over their faces. Rin, with her eyes lowered in front of her, would have had a panic attack at the looks of her friends. That was probably why she was avoiding them.

Her words hung in the air light bullets. No one moved, no one talked. Hell, no one even dared to breathe.

I braced myself for a fight, ready to jump to Rin's defense if she needed it.

"Shit," Flower finally chuckled, her words slicing through the tense air like a knife. "I thought I was the only one getting tired of this."

Rin's eyes snapped up at the girl.

"Yeah," Kanon nodded. "I don't think I can take this shit anymore." Her cheeks were still red from her sobbing the night before.

"This sucks," Anon said flatly.

Their eyes fell on me. Still feeling as I didn't have much of a say in the matter, I just shrugged.

And then there was Yuma.

"I…" he trailed off. "I agree. But what else will we do?"

"Live normal lives," I answered. Rin seemed too stunned at the acceptance of her friends to speak.

"You guys want to get jobs? Really? When we can live our lives to the fullest doing what we're already-"

"But we're missing out on so much," Kanon pointed out. "We could… we could do so much more than just kill people."

"Len knows best," Anon said, nodding towards me.

She was right. A year ago, I had been living the same as every other guy in his early twenties.

Yuma rubbed at his temple. We all hung on his words.

"Think about it," Kanon continued. "We could buy a house. Get a dog or something. Make friends. Go out and party. No more hiding in that stupid bunker plotting more murders."

"But what about the money?"

"Fuck the money!" She yelled. "There's no price on knowing that you and the people you live won't get randomly kidnapped or killed out of nowhere!"

He didn't meet her eyes. After a long pause, he took a deep breath. "It's a lot of work. I'll need to refit you all back into society. All the papers, the hacking, the files-" he cut himself off. "But… but I think I can do it."

We fell into a stunned silence again. _Am I really going home?_ By home, I meant anywhere other than that bunker. By home, I meant the public. Because I knew I would never be able to return to my LA apartment ever again. My friends had already attended my funeral months ago, my parents were notified soon after. Risking them seeing me was something I couldn't allow.

But still. _Home._

"I can be a doctor," Anon suddenly said, her voice full of hope. "A real doctor! In a hospital! Helping everyone-"

"I'd have to stay in the US. I don't think I could live without my babies," Flower said with a smile, opening her bag and lifting out her disassembled guns. "Maybe Texas. Yeah. Texas. I could open up a store. Buy, sell, and trade all of our gear. Fuck. That'd be awesome."

"I could just sell all my tech," Kanon chimed in. "I'd be, like, the world's robotics master. I wonder how much people would pay for this shit."

Rin and I exchanged glances. She was still shocked into silence.

"I'll… I'll start working on everything after we leave the state. But I'm not gonna be around as much to help with Luka. I had to make everything - not only your certificates proving your existence but that of your fake parents, your family. High school diplomas, college, even. And, Anon, if you're serious about the documents, then I'll have to do Med School - ah, shit, social security numbers!?" Yuma slumped. "This is a lot."

Everyone in the room was deep in thought, eagerly planning their future lives. Everyone was spaced out. Anon and Kanon smiled and hugged each other once more. Flower stared down at her guns with a grin. Even Yuma, who was about to consumed with stress, glanced often over at Kanon. Planning for the future.

"After Luka," Rin said. Every pair of eyes looked up from their trance, resting their eyes on the girl. "After Luka, we'll go."

"One last contract," Flower said.

Rin nodded.

"One last contract."

* * *

 _Ayyyy finally! Lol._

 _Double upload today. I'm falling behind on my writing :( I just have no time anymore._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	22. Chapter 22

"Is that it?" Anon asked from the back seat.

"No," Flower answered. "It's further down."

"Are you sure? I swore that rock was there…"

How they could tell the difference between roads in these woods was unknown to me. We had been surrounded by nothing but trees and darkness for hours now. The road beneath us was loose gravel and every road branching off was nothing more than a winding dirt path.

"It's this one," Flower said, turning right onto another road, identical to the ones we had passed before.

Anon seemed unsure. "Okay…"

"When should we ditch the car?" Rin asked. Her expression was hard and determined. She was ready for this.

"I don't know," Flower answered. "We want to get as close as we can without raising alarm. Hopefully, we won't just turn a corner and end up in her driveway."

"Psh," I let out a laugh. "That'd be perfect."

"Yeah. A perfect way to get us killed," Kanon said from the seat behind me. I seemed to be the only one in a joking mood tonight. I guess it was understandable as to why.

The car jumped with every small rock we ran over. Minivans were not meant for off-roading.

Five minutes later, Flower slowed the car to a slow stop.

"What's wrong?" Yuma asked.

Her shoulders slumped. "There's another road. Do we turn or keep going?"

"Shit," Rin muttered. "I knew we were going to get lost."

"We're not lost!" Flower shouted. "I know how to get us out of here! Just… just not how to get us there."

"Keep going straight," Anon suggested. "If we don't find anything, we can always turn around."

Flower sighed. "I guess."

We kept going.

Another few silent minutes passed. There was another road.

"Just keep going," Yuma said.

"Where the fuck do these even go?" Flower said in annoyance. "Who comes out here?"

"I mean, maybe they _all_ lead to Meiko's base. Who knows. She could have seven different buildings," Yuma said.

The idea seemed to frighten Flower. "Kanon, can any of your tech help us find them?"

She let out a sigh. "I mean, I can try. But it's a bit of a risk. They'll probably know if they're being tracked."

"Shit," Flower said quietly. "I don't know what to do."

"Wait wait wait wait-" Rin jumped out of her seat, pointing out the windshield. "Right there! Right there. You see that?"

"See what?" Flower looked at the girl like she was crazy.

"Len," Rin looked over her shoulder at me. "Do you see that?"

Flower halted the car as Rin pointed at a tree next to yet another turn off the road. I leaned forward next to her, between Flower and Yuma's seats, and spotted exactly what she was making such a big fuss about.

Tied around one of the trees was a familiar red cloth.

"Turn here," I said. "It's gotta be here."

"Why? What are you guys talking about?" Flower pulled the car off to the side of the road a few feet past the turn. We were walking from here.

Rin pulled her bag from the floor and opened the door. "We went to the college campus in town. There were these guys wearing armbands just like that and the students there didn't recognize them. They were either dealing to the students or getting… _friendly_ with the college girls."

Flower stepped out of the car. She closed her door quietly, then pulled her bag out from Rin's seat. She glanced at the cloth blowing in the soft wind. "Makes sense. They probably want their girls to find them easily. Red stands out perfect."

It didn't even occur to me that those guys were dealing more than just drugs.

"Did you guys happen to find out if girls disappear from campus often?"

"Oh, Jesus," I muttered.

Rin shook her head. "No. We didn't."

"That's awful," I said.

"Welcome to the Black Market," Kanon muttered sadly as she exited the car.

I sour taste had filled my mouth. Everyone gathered their gear, each of us carrying at least thirty pounds of gear in our bags, and started down the road.

As we passed the tree, Rin glanced towards the cloth one more time. She paused for a moment, then dashed towards the tree and tore it off.

"I have an idea," she said, answering our questioning glances. "You think they make those girls come here?"

"That'd be my guess," Flower shrugged. She led the way down the road, keeping to the left of the path itself and taking us through the wilderness. We skirted the road to avoid being seen.

"How far do you think it is?" Anon asked.

"Can't be that much further," Yuma replied. Six pairs of feet crunched through the underbrush. We had been walking for only ten minutes and I could feel the burs sticking painfully to my clothes.

Flower suddenly stopped, holding a hand up behind her. We froze.

Light was beginning to show through the trees. The light of a building.

Flower bounded forward, her movements suddenly soundless, and peered through the branches. After a few tense minutes, she came back.

We all crouched down, hidden behind some tall bushes.

"It's a fucking mansion," she whispered. "She lives in a fucking mansion."

"Can't say I'm surprised," Rin rolled her eyes.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We can't just go in. There are bound to be cameras everywhere. And I bet they're all streaming to a security room. If we take the cameras out or scramble them with our bags, they're gonna know something is up," Kanon explained.

"So we have to get to that security room," Flower concluded.

"But where is it? We can't send any drones in without being detected, and we can't avoid being detected unless we send drones - or something else - in. How are we supposed to do this?" Anon fiddled with her bag as she spoke.

Rin took a deep breath. "Kanon, do you have those glasses?"

"Which ones? The recording ones?"

"Yeah. Those."

She slowly zipped her bag open. "Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do," Rin started. She set her bag on the ground and zipped it open, pulling a seemingly random array of items from it and putting all that she could fit in her pockets. "Anon, you should stay here. This little clearing will be our meeting place. If anyone gets injured, they can come back here and you can treat them."

She nodded, her brows furrowing in determination.

"I'll wear these," Rin continued as Kanon handed her a pair of glasses that looked normal enough to me. "And I'll go in and scope the place out the best that I can. You guys are gonna have to plan from there."

Flower nodded. "Try to find the security room. If you can lock that place down, we'll be able to move throughout the mansion with you guiding us through the cams."

She nodded.

"Okay, okay, okay," Yuma held his hands up. "It's a good plan. But _please_ don't attack her until we find her office. That's gotta be where her files are. And, also, _no shooting._ We'll be caught in a heartbeat if anyone hears a gun go off."

"I have the baton," Rin said, tapping her pocket. She gently placed the glasses over her eyes.

"But how are you gonna get in?" I asked.

"Simple," she said, blinking underneath the glasses. They somehow made her eyes look even bigger. "You said it yourself. I look like a college girl."

My shoulders slumped. "But-but who _knows_ what they do in there-"

"I'll be fine," she assured me.

I wasn't convinced. The last time she had gone in alone, it didn't end well.

"Plus," she said, tapping the corner of her glasses. "You guys will see exactly where I'm going."

"And if they take the glasses?"

"Why would they-" she cut herself off with a frown.

Kanon dug through her bag again. "Clip this in your shirt somewhere. We'll be to track you if we need to."

She nodded, taking the small device from Kanon's hand. "Okay."

It made me feel a little better, but not much.

Kanon pulled out a tablet. It was barely larger than the average smartphone. "Just let me connect them real quick and you'll be all set." She booted up the tablet. Suddenly, the screen was filled with all of our faces from Rin's point of view.

She looked in different directions experimentally. The screen followed her every movement.

"Keep your earpiece on," Kanon instructed her. "We'll be able to hear you." She fitted her own small microphone into her ear. The rest of us took the hint and did the same.

Rin took a deep breath and stood. "Okay. Here we go."

I didn't like this plan at all. But it was too late to protest. She wiped the underbrush from her clothes and jumped to the road.

I moved next to Kanon, watching the screen intently.

"She'll be fine, Len," Anon assured me.

I said nothing and continued to stare at the screen.

It wobbled a bit as she walked. She looked up, the grand mansion displayed before her. It was just like movies; multiple stories tall, white columns adorning the clean walls and windows that revealed an interior that matched the grandeur of the exterior. There were people everywhere, including two standing in front of the double-doored entrance. The two guys were each holding a rifle. I gulped.

My heart nearly stopped when they turned their heads towards Rin.

" _Well, well. What are you doing out here this late?"_ One of them asked her as she approached. He wore a sickening smile that made me want to kick his teeth in.

Rin looked down. "I'm… I'm from Fairbanks. I heard about this place from one of the guys there," she said, her voice feigning naivety. "I heard it's always a party."

The other guy wore the same sly smile. " _Who sent you, sweetie?"_

I let out a huff. Yuma chuckled next to me. "You're funny, dude."

"Quiet, you two!" Flower snapped, watching the screen with us.

" _I, uh, I think his name was Ted?"_ She held out the red cloth. " _He gave me this._ "

The men exchanged grins. " _Right this way,_ " said the one on the left, leading her up the marble steps to the front doors. He pushed them open and Rin stepped inside.

The floors were polished marble tiles with gold patterns interspersed among them. They had walked into an elegant living room, filled with some very inelegant people. To the right was a matching marble fireplace with a blaring TV hanging over it. Beyond the living room was a hallway extending to what looked like a kitchen. To the left stretched another hallway, with a curving staircase extending next to it. The stairs wrapped around a thick white column, leading to a single set of double doors. An insignia with a fancily drawn _M_ adorned the doors.

Rin looked at them for a long time.

"That must lead to Meiko's living quarters," Yuma said. "Her office has to be in there."

" _Wow~"_ she gazed intently around the room, letting us see the entirety of her surroundings. _What's up there?"_ Rin asked innocently, pointing at the top of the stairs. She ignored the curious glances of the others from the couch.

The guy waved her off. " _Nothing fun. Come on - Ted's down here."_ He walked ahead of her, leading her down the left hallway. She passed the staircase.

Flower looked up from the screen, gazing at the mansion in front of us. "That would mean all the windows on the top floor lead to Meiko's quarters."

The guy opened a door at the end of the hall, revealing a staircase into the basement. He went in first. Rin followed him.

" _How many floors are there here?"_ Rin asked in wonder, still looking around. They had entered another living room, this one empty. Another hallway extended across the room from them. The guy headed towards it.

My heart was pounding with worry.

" _Just three,"_ he answered. " _The basement, the main floor, and upstairs."_

They entered the hallway. Their footsteps tapped against the marble floor. There were several doors spread throughout the hall, most of them closed. As they passed each one, Rin looked in intently.

The third door they passed was open. She glanced inside and froze. It was a dark room with TV screens stretched across the wall opposite the door. Another guy sat in a chair, his back to Rin, watching the screens.

It was the cameras.

One showed the front entrance, guarded by only one guy now. Another showed the living room they had entered through. Then there was one aimed directly at the stairs leading to the double doors.

Rin's eyes hovered on one camera specifically.

It was Meiko. She was sitting on a white couch, a huge TV screen in front of her. Her back was to the camera.

 _We found her._

" _Wow~"_ Rin sang again, stepping into the room. " _You guys have your own security?! This place is awesome._ "

The guy in the chair turned to face her. He wasn't armed.

" _Yeah, but this isn't the place-"_ the guy with the gun stepped in behind her.

Rin turned, planted her hands on the rifle, and kneed the guy in the crotch.

" _Fuck!_ " He screamed, stepped back. " _You bit-"_

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. Rin gripped the barrel, swinging the butt of the gun right into his temple. He fell to the floor. She turned to strike the other guy just as he rose from the seat.

She hastily closed the door and propped the two bodies up against it.

" _Fuckin' creeps,_ " she muttered, sitting in the swivel chair before the cameras. " _We're clear."_

"Kára, the office," Yuma said. "Where's the office?"

She looked through the cameras. " _There,"_ she pointed. The room looked more like a library than an office. Tall bookshelves rose from the ground to the ceiling, reading chairs dispersed throughout the room. There was a single computer at the end in front of a large paneled window. " _East end of the building. Second floor."_

Yuma turned to me and Flower. "Us three. We're going for it."

"Okay," I nodded, just relieved that Rin wasn't at the mercy of those guys anymore.

"What about me?" Kanon furrowed her brow.

"You need to stay with Anon. In case someone finds her," he explained.

She glanced at her sister with a nod.

"Helgi, Odin and I are going to circle around," Yuma explained. "We'll rappel up to the second floor and go in through the window."

" _And what about the rat?"_ Rin asked with a sneer.

Yuma sighed. "If we really have to take her out, I'll have Helgi do it after we get the info we need."

" _I want to do it,"_ she said.

"You need to watch the cameras."

" _I think I can disable all of them. I'll lock the door on my way out so no one can get in. We'll be long gone before they get in here."_

Yuma shook his head. "And how are you going to get past all those guards on the main floor?"

" _I'm sneaky."_

"Just stay down there," he insisted.

" _No."_

On the screen, she glanced down at the computer-like keyboard in front of her, clicking away at the screens and sabotaging the cameras one-by-one.

"Dammit," Yuma uttered.

" _I'll meet you guys up there,"_ she promised.

"Let's move. Now," Flower said, standing. "I want to get out of here asap."

"Agreed," I said, lifting my bag, and, after a quick glance, Rin's as well. I hung one on each shoulder.

They didn't question me. Flower and I followed Yuma through the woods. We skirted the mansion. Several other guards patrolled the edges, but none of them caught onto us. We left Anon and Kanon in the clearing alone.

Yuma stopped once we circled to the back of the mansion. He pointed to a window on the second floor. It was the same shape and size of the one Rin had seen on the cameras. Two statues of menacing gargoyles stood on either side of the window. _Old-fashioned,_ I commented to myself.

The three of us paused, waiting for another patrol to pass by. The seemed to walk in a predictable pattern. Every four minutes or so.

"I'll go first," Flower whispered. She pulled a small device out of her bag and set it between her teeth. It looked like a large exacto knife.

"I'm right behind you," Yuma said.

"I'll drop the rope when I get up top," she told him.

"Can you climb it?" Yuma asked me over his shoulder.

"I'll be fine."

"Okay." He turned back to Flower. "On your call."

She turned her head from side to side, watching a pair of loudly-talking men pass underneath our destination. As soon as they turned the corner, Flower made a run for it. Yuma crawled forward and watched her.

Flower reached the wall, pulling a rope out of her bag and throwing the knotted end up at one of the statues skillfully. She roped it on the first try. Pulling it tight, she began to ascend. After a few heart-racing seconds, she pulled the exacto knife out from between her teeth and drew a human-sized oval in the glass. The panel fell into the room. Flower caught it, keeping it from shattering on the marble floor, and let out a small yelp.

"Is she okay?" I asked Yuma.

He frowned. "I think so."

She guided the glass cutout into the room and gently to the floor.

"Now," Yuma said, jumping from his hiding position. I followed him.

We sprinted from the woods, across the well-kept grass, towards the rope. Yuma jumped onto it first. The rope swung wildly below him as he climbed.

I heard faint voices around the corner.

"Hurry!" I stage-whispered up to him. "They're coming!"

He pulled himself into the room. I jumped onto the rope after him.

The voices were growing louder, nearing the corner. I could hear three distinct laughs. And each of them surely had a gun.

"Helgi, let's go!" Flower poked her head out of the window and held a hand out towards me. I scrambled up the rope and grabbed it just in time. She pulled me up and shuffled the rope into her hands.

We disappeared into the dark room just as three figures emerged from around the corner. They didn't pause as they passed below us.

"Thank God," Yuma whispered, pulling his laptop out of his bag and setting it on the desk. He booted up Meiko's computer. "Just stay quiet. This is gonna take me a few minutes."

Flower stared out the window, looking for any signs of distress from the guards. There were none.

" _Updates, guys,"_ Kanon said through our comms.

"We're in the office," Flower said. "Loki's setting up the hack now."

" _I'm almost done with the cameras. No one's bothered me yet,"_ Rin said.

"Psh," Yuma let out a laugh. "You'd think she'd have a password for her computer. Fucking idiot. I'm in."

"What can you find?" Flower asked, leaning over his shoulder to see the screen. He connected the two computers together with some wires I didn't understand. I watched from the other shoulder.

Yuma clicked through her files. "Client list. Locations to… _somewhere._ Ah, here," he clicked on a file. "Suppliers. Luka's the only one."

" _What's it say?"_ Rin asked.

He furrowed his brow. "...Nothing I understand. It's all written in some sort of code."

" _We don't have time to decipher it now. Can you just download it so we can get the hell out of here?"_ Kanon asked.

"I'm in the process. But it's going to take a few minutes to get everything. There's a lot on here."

"See what else you can find," Flower said.

" _Cameras are gone. I'm on my way upstairs."_

"Be careful, K," I said.

" _Mhmm."_

"Let's see…" he searched through some other files. "Shipment dates, supply lists… here's her account history." He clicked. "Holy shit. I'd assume it's Luka depositing all this money into her account. Well," he chuckled. "Now all into _our_ account."

Flower let out a laugh. "Suck on that, bitch."

"And there we go," he said, clicking on the new addition to Meiko's recent transactions. "We're gonna live long, happy lives, guys." His brow furrowed. "Wait. What's that?" He pointed to the corner of the screen. " _Tanana, Alaska, US._ Is that where we are?"

"I think it's the closest town," Flower answered.

"...So her tech tracks her bank activity?"

Flower shrugged. "I guess it does."

He clicked to a different one. "Look," he said. "This is the one from the China job. The client gave her eleven mil. And then the deposit into our account. That one," he said with a grin. "Isn't tracked. Luckily, she hasn't been able to get through _my_ security."

"But what about the client? Wasn't it Luka?"

"We can guess," he said, typing away. "Guys. We have a location."

" _Where is it?"_ Anon begged for an answer.

"Brazil. This place called Manaus, Brazil."

" _But what if the contract wasn't Luka? Try some others,"_ Kanon suggested.

He did as he was told. Every single deposit into Meiko's account over a couple million dollars was from the same city.

"That has to be her," he said, his voice rising with hope. "That has to be!"

A door open and closed gently from the hall on the other side of the door. The three of us froze, but the footsteps were too quiet to be any of those thugs downstairs. They walked right past the office.

"K," I said in my mic. "You passed the office."

" _I know,"_ she whispered.

I glanced at Yuma and Flower before sneaking to the door and opening it. I stepped into the hallway.

Rin stood in front of me, her back to me. Beyond her was Meiko's living room. The woman herself sat on the couch, just where we saw her on the cameras, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. She was completely unaware of our presence.

I took a silent step forward, causing Rin to jump a bit as I brushed against her arm to let her know I was here. She shot me a determined look before snapping her gaze back to the girl in front of us. I transferred her bag from my shoulder to hers.

The remote for the TV was on the kitchen counter directly to our right. Rin grabbed it and pressed the power button.

Meiko sat up as the screen went black, then cursed under her breath. "Where's that damn-"

"Looking for this?" Rin asked.

She froze. Slowly and shakily, Meiko turned her head towards us. Once her brown eyes landed on us, she shot up from the couch. "How the fuck-"

"Did you really think," Rin said, setting the remote back onto the counter. "That you could get rid of me that easily?"

Meiko's eyes flickered between us like a deer in headlights. She was scared. "R-Rin, please. You have to understand. It was business! I have to do what I have to do-"

"So is this," she responded, reaching into her bag and pulling out her pistol.

 _Yuma said no guns._ I remained silent. He was almost done with the computer. Then we'd be gone.

Meiko's eyes fluttered to the gun in terror. "What… what do you want from me?"

She smirked. "Oh, we already have what we want." She pointed over her shoulder towards the office. "How's it feel being broke?"

Meiko's movements were robotic and panicked. "What? No-"

"Your office had some pretty interesting info on a mutual acquaintance of ours," Rin explained as she loaded her gun.

She shook her head furiously. "No! No, Rin, please. She'll kill me-"

"I don't think it's her you need to worry about."

She held her hands up in defense. "Look, we can work something out here," she begged. "We can - we can start working together again! And I'll get you twice as many contracts as before, I swear! And Luka can go fuck herself, okay? I'll stop all contact! I promise-"

Rin let out a laugh. "You expect me to trust your word after you tried to have me killed?"

"It was _business_!" Meiko wailed. "I swear! I would have never done it if Luka-"

Rin rose her gun. "No one lives long in this business," she said slowly. Anger flared in her eyes and triumph in her smile. "See ya, Meiko."

" _Hack is done,"_ Yuma said through the mic. " _Leaving now-"_

"Rin, wait-"

Meiko never got to finish her sentence. A loud _bang_ sounded throughout the entire house, surely heard by everyone both inside and outside. Blood splattered on the TV behind her and Meiko fell to the ground. She didn't move.

" _K?! What the fuck! We said-"_

"Let's get out of here," Rin said, turning back to the office. Someone yelled from the floor below us.

I cast one last look at Meiko's lifeless body. I almost felt guilty. But then I remembered her snide plot in London, her malevolent dealings with Luka, the terrible acts her guys were committing.

"Bitch," I muttered as I followed Rin into the office. Flower and Yuma were long gone, but they had left the rope for us.

We jumped out of the window and descended into the night without a word.

* * *

 _Ah, Vocaloids. Gotta love taking them and writing them so they kill each other._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	23. Chapter 23

We started in Montana, then flew to Mexico to track Meiko. Then it was back up even further north to Alaska and now we flew even _further_ down south to Brazil.

"I need to lay down," I said, lugging my bag through the terminal of yet another airport. "Please tell me the hotel is close."

Flower glanced at me slyly. "You really think, after our little _financial success,_ we're going to be staying at a hotel?"

All this running around the entire world was exhausting. Flower rented us yet another van, which we all climbed in slowly and sleepily. The sun was high in the sky and most of us had slept on the plane, but I felt like I had only slept a wink.

The only person seemingly unaffected by this haze was Rin.

Ever since we had all entered the getaway car, escaping Meiko's hectic mansion, she had been giddy with joy. When I had fallen asleep on the plane, she was staring out the window with a grin. When I had woken up, she was exactly the same.

She didn't even push me off when I fell asleep on her shoulder in the car.

"Len, get up. We're here," she said gently. It felt like only seconds since we left the airport and yet my surroundings were completely different.

Manaus was a large city surrounded by rainforests on three sides and the Amazon River on the fourth. The streets were cramped and crowded with people. Store vendors were set up along the sidewalks, selling everything from fruits to children's toys. Cars drove down the thin streets, feeling almost choked by the buildings surrounding. Flower had driven us through all of the chaos of the city and led us to the southern edge and stopped in front of a large cottage bordering the Amazon River.

"Come on!" Rin pulled at my arm. I sluggishly followed her out of the car, too tired to notice our friends smirking at my sluggish movements.

The air was hot and humid, as expected in the middle of the Amazon. I had been standing in the hot sun for only a few seconds and I was already scared I was sweating through my civilian clothes.

The cottage that stood in front of us was built with the smooth clay walls, a similar style compared to the rest of the city. It had two floors and a flat roof. It was a simple, rectangular building.

"This is our five-star resort?" Yuma muttered.

Flower shot him a glare.

"I like it," Anon said, walking towards the front door ahead of us. "It's cute." She pushed open the door. The rest of us followed her in.

There were two bedrooms on the ground floor, each extremely small and with two twin beds taking up most of the floor. There was also a small kitchen along with a seating area with a coffee table and a small TV sitting across the room. A steep staircase led us to the second floor, which contained two more bedrooms. These two were bigger than the ones downstairs, each with a larger bed as well.

As I explored, the second I saw the bigger bed, I set my bag on the ground outside the door. "Do… do you guys mind if I-"

"Go for it," Kanon snickered, making her way back downstairs.

I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

When I woke up the second time, my head felt much better, but the room was almost a million degrees.

I rolled over, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and cringing at the uncomfortable heat shining in through the window. I hadn't even crawled under the blankets and it was still horrible.

I changed, leaving my smelly clothes in the corner of my room. I'd deal with it later.

The others were all downstairs. Like our last trip, everyone had made themselves quite at home in our living room. It seemed a ritual for each of them to take up as much space as possible.

Rin, however, sat on the loveseat with a book in her lap. When I came down the stairs, she grinned at me. "Mornin'," she called.

"Psh," Yuma let out an amused laugh. "As if."

I rubbed at the back of my neck. "What time is it?"

"Almost three," Kanon chirped, not looking up from her tech. Every time she emptied her bag, it seemed to be a completely different set of gear than before. It all looked alien to me.

"Jeez," I answered.

Rin folded her book up and jumped from her chair. "So who's coming to check out the address with me?"

"I think we're all going, right?" Flower looked around the room.

"I'm… I think I'm going to hang back," Yuma said, typing away on his computer. "I need to start working on all this."

I smiled. "Who's life are you starting with?"

"Mine, of course," he answered with a smirk.

"Ah, yes," I teased. "Ladies first."

"Fuck you."

I chuckled.

"Come on," Kanon rolled her eyes. She zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Let's go check this out."

Rin had been packed and ready to go for hours, it seemed. Her bag sat in a neat pile at the foot of her chair before she swooped it up. The thought occurred to me that they had been waiting for me.

We stepped into the blinding sun.

Though most of the city was built with small, two-story buildings made of paneled wood, clay, or bricks, there were other modern-style buildings towards the center of the city. Not nearly as many as I had seen before, but there were a few.

It was in front of one of these buildings that Rin stopped, her hands on her hips. The building, a modern office space, seemed like any other skyscraper we had ventured to. It towered over all buildings around it except for its neighbor. Directly to its right was another tall skyscraper, only a floor or two taller than our building of interest. From the ground, the two looked identical.

I rolled my eyes. "Why does it always have to be the giant skyscrapers?" I groaned, remembering the infinite number of stairs I had climbed.

"This can't be right," Kanon gazed over the blue windows with awe. "How could she hide here? It's the tallest building in the city."

Rin furrowed her brow. Pedestrians passed us on the sidewalk. "But… but this is where Yuma's data leads. _This_ is where all of Meiko's money came from."

There were two sets of doors across the street from us. People streamed in and out of them, most of them dressed in business attire. It reminded me of the casino from so many weeks ago, where the sea of people had made every face indistinguishable from the next. It would be impossible to find anyone of interest in that crowd.

Rin leaned against the building behind us. It looked like a restaurant of some sort. "Let's just… chill here, I guess. See if we can spot anything suspicious."

"What's the building called?" Flower asked, pulling out a tablet.

I squinted across the street. There was a plaque mounted between the two sets of doors.

"Is it even in English?" Anon questioned.

"I think so." I took a step across the sidewalk. The cars racing through the streets were only inches away from me now. Through their gaps, I began to piece together the letters on the sign. " _Skye Platinum Offices,"_ I read, returning to the girls. Each of them had settled casually against the restaurant. "That's what it's called."

Flower's fingers tapped against the screen. Her eyes widened. "Okay," she began. "So it's an office building. People can rent out floors for their companies. But the _entire building_ is rented out by one person."

"Does it tell you who?" I asked. "Is this, like, some secret hacking thing you're doing? I thought that was Yuma's job."

Flower rolled her eyes. "I'm on Google, Len."

"Oh."

"And no," she concluded. "It doesn't say any names. But it looks like, whoever's running it, they're renting the space because they're the head of an Amazon company." She looked up at us. "Amazon, like, the online store. Not the rainforest."

Rin frowned. "So Amazon has been paying Meiko billions of dollars?"

Flower lowered the tablet. "I don't know. I don't get it, either."

"You don't think the tracker was wrong?" Anon suggested timidly. "Luka's no idiot. Maybe she masked her location and Meiko's tech wasn't advanced enough to get past it."

"I hope not," Kanon answered. "We don't have any other leads."

For the first time in a few days, Rin looked displeased. "I still think we should just sit here for a little longer. We have to be sure this isn't it before we give up."

Flower nodded in agreement.

So we leaned against the wall and waited. Anon strayed from the group, grabbing a newspaper from a nearby stand.

Kanon snickered as her sister opened the paper and scanned it. "Can you read Portuguese?" She teased.

"I can look at the pictures," she responded with a smile.

A ripple of laughter rang through us. The stream of people never seemed to cease coming in and out of the Skye Offices. _There's no way Luka has this many people working for her,_ I thought. _That'd be way too risky. There must be a thousand people in that building right now. How can she trust all of them?_

That was, unless they didn't know they were working for her.

We didn't have to wait long. Suddenly, a very expensive-looking BMW parked in front of the building, eliciting honks and shouts from the other drivers of the road. A car door opened and shut.

Rin tensed. "You don't think that's-"

"Shh!" Flower hissed.

The car was too tall for us to see who had exited on the other side. But all four doors opened, revealing their bodyguards. Whoever they were, they were important.

"That's her," Rin said with certainty. "It has to be. It has to be-"

The car drove away, revealing the elite who had exited the car.

Rin's shoulders slumped.

Across the street stood a tall girl, probably about my height, dressed in a suit with a phone pressed to her ear. I had never seen anyone with hair that long, let along hair that bright color of teal. It hung from her head in twin pigtails.

"That's not her," Flower muttered.

"Then who is it?" Kanon asked.

"You don't think that's the person running all this, do you?" Rin asked. "You don't think she-"

"Guys," Anon said. She angled the paper towards us. The same girl, with those twintails, the same phone in her hand, and a wide grin spread across her face, was featured on one of the pages in the newspaper. The black and white picture showed her standing in front of Skye Offices with a smile. Amid all of the Portuguese were the names _Skye Office Building_ and _Miku Hatsune._

We looked back towards her. She chatted away on her phone relentlessly.

"A businesswoman," Flower smirked. "Always fun."

"If anyone here knows something, it's gonna be her," Rin stated.

"So… what do we do?" I asked.

Kanon crossed her arms. "We need to tap that phone."

* * *

 _I have been neglecting this site so much omg I suck_

 _Yay for Miku! Our last rather... important character :)_

 _Thanks for reading!_


	24. Chapter 24

"Okay, here's all you have to do," Kanon explained to me over the counter of our kitchen the next morning. "Just take this plastic cover off, and put the _not sticky_ side in your hand. When you run into her, just grab her phone. It'll stick onto the back and she'll have no idea that it's there."

I sighed. "I still don't see why _I_ have to do this," I muttered.

"Because we said so!" Rin said matter-of-factly. "Plus, out of all of us, you're the least likely to be recognized."

Kanon held a small strip of clear paper in her hand. It looked like tape. There were no wires running through it, no blinking lights or buttons. It just looked like a normal piece of paper.

"How does this thing work?" I asked, gingerly taking the slip from her and turning it over in my hands. It reminded me of a contact lens. If I were to drop it, I would _never_ find it.

She smiled proudly. "Made it myself. Stick it onto the back of her phone and it'll transmit all of her calls directly to my tablet."

I raised an eyebrow. "What if she's not involved with Luka at all? What if she's just some girl trying to make a living?"

She shrugged. "Then she's about to have all of her privacy invaded. And that's not my problem. We have bigger things to worry about."

She was right, but I still didn't like it.

"So, let's go," Rin pushed herself off of the counter. "We're wasting daylight."

"Go on without me," Flower said from the couch. She sat next to Yuma, who was still intently tapping away at his laptop. "We're working on my life next."

"When do _I_ get a turn?" Kanon muttered, half-joking.

"Next, if you want," the pink-haired boy called.

"Come on," Rin grabbed her bag and opened the front door. "Let's get out of here."

I was sweating again. Whether from the heat or the intensity of the situation, I did not know.

Anon, Kanon, and Rin stood across the street from me, nonchalantly glancing towards me every so often. I leaned next to one of the entrances to Skye, waiting for those bright blue pigtails to appear. We weren't even sure if we'd see her today.

The clear slip was in my hand, sticky side up, ready to tap into her phone.

I was terrified I was going to drop it. I was equally terrified I was going to touch my face, arms, clothes, anything with it. Kanon had warned me against such a stupid act. She only had one of these made, and once it was stuck, it was not going to come off.

I had been standing there forever, adjusting myself nervously, pulling at my clothes with my right hand and keeping my left held limply at my side, when Rin's voice sounded through my earpiece.

" _Helgi,"_ she said. Across the street, I noticed her glance to her left. My right. " _Three o'clock. No guards."_

I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Through the crowd, I spotted her walking her way gracefully back to the offices. She held a bag in one hand, no doubt containing her lunch, and her phone in the other. Lika before, it was pressed firmly against her ear.

 _Here we go,_ I thought to myself.

I tried to look as casual as possible, blending in with the crowd. Everyone walked without care of bumping into the people around them. This should be easy. The more steps I took towards her, the faster my heart pounded. Her high-pitched voice was within eavesdropping distance now.

"-Friday?" She was saying. "Or maybe Saturday? We could go out to dinner! I know you like that place right on the river-" She was speaking English. Another oddity in a city like this.

I was so distracted by her words that I almost forgot about the mission at hand. Just as our shoulders began to pass each other, I faked a trip, knocking straight into her shoulder.

I calculated it perfectly. The girl's blue eyes widened as the phone flew from her hands.

I caught it in my left hand. And then panicked. I couldn't feel the tapper in my hand anymore. _Did I just drop it?!_

"Oh, ah, sorry!" I muttered at the girl who was now looking up at me. I handed her the phone. "Must have tripped." Seeing her up close, I was even more sure that she was _not_ who we were looking for. She talked cheerfully and happily, but there were dark circles under her eyes, no doubt the effects of her stressful job. Her suit was neatly and elegantly presented, but her posture was poor. She slugged everywhere.

And now her lunch bag was on the dirty sidewalk.

"That's okay!" She chirped, taking the phone gently from my hand. "Thanks for catching it." She smiled.

 _There's no way._ If I had ever ran into Meiko like this, whether she knew it was me or not, she would have screamed at me.

"And, uh, your lunch," I pointed to the bag, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. "I'm sorry about that, too."

"No worries!" She said, quickly snatching the bag from the ground. "It's just a sandwich. And it's wrapped, too. I'm sure it's fine."

I could never imagine a girl this kind and cheerful to be working for a criminal mastermind. "Oh! Great! Well, I'll let you get back to it."

With her phone in one hand and her food in the other, she looked up at me with one more smile. "Have a nice day."

"You, too."

She walked away, raising the phone back to her ear. "Sorry, Love. What were you saying?"

I blinked after her, almost too stunned to move.

" _Good shit, Helgi,_ " Kanon said through the comms. " _You got it."_

"I really don't think that's-"

" _Shut up, idiot!"_ Rin said. " _If you're gonna talk to us, come over here! You'll look crazy otherwise."_

One tense street crossing later, I leaned next to Rin. Kanon was staring intently at her tablet and Anon had picked up another copy of the newspaper. When I approached, only Anon paid any attention to me. Kanon had her headphones connected to the tablet, her earpiece removed and the earbuds replacing them.

"I don't… I don't think that's the right girl," I told them.

Rin raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"She just seemed… too… _nice,_ " I couldn't find any better words. "Like she was so polite and everything. I couldn't even imagine-"

Kanon shook her head. "No," she said, removing one of her earbuds. "This is definitely the right girl." She handed Rin one of the buds, the other to me.

" _Are you sure?"_ Miku asked. " _Skye's going really well. I don't think it needs much more attention this week. I'm all free-"_

" _Maybe another time. I'm busy."_ The voice that replied was another girl, her voice much lower and much more melodic than the business woman's.

Rin tensed up next to me. Her eyes widened in a mixture of terror and excitement. I had never heard this voice before, but she clearly had. The very air surrounding us seemed to grow dark at this voice on the phone, as if the sun had been eclipsed by the sound. With Rin standing close enough to share a headphone with me, I could tell she was shaking. Trembling.

Miku let out a huff. " _What about… what about Sunday? I'm sure you could spare just one night-"_

" _How about this."_ Luka cut her off. " _I'll see how my schedule fills out tomorrow. And then maybe I'll come by."_

Miku's voice lit up like a candle. " _Really?! Okay! Just let me know! I mean, worst case scenario, I can set us up a nice dinner in the office! We could totally-"_

" _Meeks. I gotta go. I'll call you tonight."_

" _Okay! Okay! I'll talk to you tonight. I love-"_

Click.

"Holy shit," I said.

Rin handed the earbud back to Kanon. "That… that was her."

The sisters each wore a devilish grin. "We fucking found her. Holy shit. We actually managed to-"

"We need to get this back to Yuma," Rin said. Her voice was flat. She seemed bothered by the phone call. Or perhaps troubled at the simple sound of Luka's voice.

She didn't say a word as we walked back to the cottage.

Yuma gently removed his earbuds. "Wow," was all he could say.

The six of us gathered around the coffee table of our cottage, relaying the end of our phone call to Flower and Yuma. They shared similar expressions as Rin. Complete and utter awe.

"I… I honestly didn't think we'd be able to do it," he said. "But that's her. That's _definitely_ her."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Flower held up a hand. "We can't celebrate yet. Yes, we've got her on the phone. But we haven't found her yet." The sun had set. Through the window, the darkness of night was unfamiliar.

Anon, who sat cross-legged on the floor, looked up at Yuma. "Can you track the number?"

"I tried," Kanon answered for him. "First, it told me she was in Paris. The second time, it told me she was in Moscow. Third, Washington. Luka's using a scrambler for her phone. Generates a random number every few seconds."

I furrowed my brow. "Then how do they keep in touch with each other? How can Miku get those numbers-"

"I'm assuming Luka calls her," Kanon answered. "Miku can't call back."

"She's gotta be somewhere close," I pointed out. "She said in the call she could be here by tomorrow. She's within a days travel."

Flower leaned back in her seat with a sigh. "I fucking knew it. She's gotta be in the rainforests somewhere."

"But where?"

"She could be anywhere."

"At least we've got it narrowed down to a continent," Kanon chuckled.

There was a pause in the room as everyone tried to think of a solution to our problem.

"So what's the next move?" Rin asked. She sat in that same loveseat, her legs crossed, her eyes deep in thought.

"We can't track her. We have no idea where she is. I don't know what we _can_ do," Yuma stated, rubbing his temple.

I crossed my arms. "We can wait for her to come here."

Everyone looked up at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world.

"What?" I asked in response to their glances. "Her and this Miku girl seem pretty… _close._ She's gotta come out here. She said she'd try tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe she'll be at Skye for dinner!"

Flower nodded. "He has a point. We may not know where Luka is, but we know where her girlfriend is."

Yuma furrowed his brow. "I just… I don't understand any of this. Why are they at Skye Offices? How can they stay there without arousing any suspicion? That entire building _has_ to be dealing Luka's shit. How do they get away with that?"

Rin shifted in her seat. "Flower. You said the building was a branch of Amazon?"

She nodded.

Rin kept her eyes glued to the coffee table as she spoke, still lost in her own thoughts. "So Luka is dealing with the underground side of the business, and she has her girlfriend dealing with the business side. They're masking as Amazon dealers. Which means they can ship their drugs over Amazon without being detected."

Yuma's mouth dropped open. "That's… that's _fucking genius._ "

Flower shook her head in disbelief. "If I didn't hate her so much, I'd want to shake her hand. That's clever."

"So all those people think they're working for Amazon," I concluded to myself. "When they're really working as Luka's drug dealers?"

"Exactly," Rin said.

"Holy shit."

Yuma was in such a state of awe that he rose from the couch. "We're a five-minute walk away from the biggest Black Market hub in the world."

"Our next step," Flower concluded. "We need to wait for Luka to show."

"I'll keep monitoring Miku's phone calls for any updates," Kanon said with determined eyes.

"Fuck, dude," Yuma muttered. "Why do I have to sit out for all the fun shit?"

* * *

 _Thank you guys so much for understanding my wild upload schedule right now. I'm starting to get into the swing of things. And I've got a lot of plans for future fics._

 _Thanks for reading! You guys really are the best :)_


	25. Chapter 25

It was another blindingly hot day in Manaus.

Rin and I had taken shelter in the shade of the restaurant across the street from Skye. Luckily, we had been assigned the morning shift, meaning we had the option to retreat to our air-conditioned home before the worst of the heat.

Skye opened at six in the morning and closed soon after the sun had set. No one was forced to sit around for eight hours at a time anymore. Especially with Yuma and Flower finally allowing Rin and I to help.

We stood next to each other, leaning against the window, silently watching the building across the street. We hadn't seen Miku since I tapped her phone, but, according to her calls, she was still somewhere in Skye. Kanon's tapper conveniently doubled as a tracker. She was still here.

She just never left.

"Do you think she sleeps there, too?" I leaned over to Rin and asked.

She shrugged. "She has to. No one's seen her leave yet. Her phone is upstairs and she's been talking to Luka at least once a day since we got here."

I frowned. Spending your entire life in the office did not seem appealing. There would be no way to escape your work.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of my own statement.

The crowd in front of us was thick, like always, with people going about their daily lives. They easily distracted me. I found myself glancing from one person to the next as they strode by.

As if appearing out of thin air, Flower and Anon slid out of the crowd.

"Get outta here," Anon smiled. "Go enjoy the day."

I rolled my eyes. "How can I enjoy anything in this heat?"

"Quit complaining," Flower said with some amusement. "You could always go take a dip in the river. Practice swimming away from the piranhas."

"Yeah. I'll get right on that."

Rin giggled softly before pulling at my sleeve. "Come on. I'm hungry."

So we left the two of them to take over watch.

"I don't even know what to eat in a place like this," I said. "Everything scares me."

She walked next to me with her chin high, glancing curiously at the buildings and people around us. "I'm just gonna eat some chips back at the house. Those are safe."

"I feel kinda bad not even _trying_ anything, you know? It's, like, their culture. I feel like we should try something."

Rin rolled her eyes. "I'm not here to experience culture, Len."

It was nearly lunchtime and I noticed we weren't the only ones in search of food. In fact, the entire crowd seemed to suddenly switch gears, searching for food stands. I furrowed my brow as the crow formed long lines before certain booths, while others were left completely empty.

"Guess we're not the only hungry ones," I told her after a few minutes. Those who had all received their meal sat on benches lining the street. In each pair of hands was a bowl of soup.

Rin seemed curious as well. She pulled a tourist guide out of her bag and flipped through it.

"It's like they were all on a schedule," I wondered.

"Oh, here," she said, pointing to a place in her pamphlet. "In the afternoon, it's tradition for everyone to eat… this dish whose name I can't pronounce. It's like a soup." She glanced up at me with a smile. "They say it has healing properties."

"Let me see." I leaned next to her to read the paragraph. My brow furrowed at the name. "T...Tacaca?"

She chuckled. "That sounds appetizing."

I slid my hands into my pockets. "Looks like I found my lunch."

"You're going to be puking for the next two weeks."

"They're all fine!" I insisted, gesturing to the crowds that were all sitting, eating, and talking.

"They've been eating it their whole lives, idiot," she said with a grin. "But if you want to, go for it."

We stopped in front of an empty bench in the shade of a tall tree. I set my bag down next to Rin as she sat on it, scanning the street for the booth with the shortest line. I spotted it. "I'll be right back," I said before running off.

She shook her head, watching me go with an amused smile.

After a five-minute wait and an awkward exchange with the non-English-speaking woman at the booth, I sat down next to Rin with the dish in my hand.

She wrinkled her nose the second she caught the scent. "Oh, God. You're gonna _eat_ that?"

"It's rude not to appreciate their food, Rin."

"You're dumb if you eat that."

The bowl itself was made of a plain red clay. It was set inside of another, bigger bowl, to protect my hands from the scalding broth inside. The soup itself was yellow in color with green vegetables floating around in it under a large handful of dried shrimp.

"What's that green stuff?" Rin asked, scooting a bit closer to me in an attempt to get a better look at the contents. "Seaweed?"

"I… I don't really know. It kinda looks like it." In the soup was a single wooden utensil, bearing a precise resemblance to a single chopstick. "Were they supposed to give me two of these?"

Rin looked around. Everyone else was slurping their soup straight of the bowl, using the single chopstick as merely a guide. The more we realized about this mysterious, traditional food, the more amused she became. "Nope," she answered with a sly smile. "You gotta drink it from the bowl."

"It's… hot."

"Well, yeah. It's soup."

"But it's already hot outside."

She crossed her arms. "You bought it, Len. Now you gotta eat it."

"Uh." I swirled the contents with my chopstick. "You first."

She held her hands up in defense. "I know better than to go sticking my nose in foreign foods. Learned that back in India _years_ ago."

"Pussy," I muttered, elbowing her playfully.

She smacked my arm away. "You bought it. Eat it."

I took a deep breath and glanced down at the bowl. Before I could convince myself otherwise, I raised the bowl to my lips and drank.

After a few gulps, I lowered it once again.

"So?" She asked, sitting on the edge of her seat. "How is it?"

It was a little spicy. I blinked as I adjusted to the taste. It was unlike anything I had ever had before, and although I wouldn't say it was particularly _bad_ , it was probably something I wouldn't plan on eating in the future.

"Do you have any water?" I asked her, feeling the spice begin to pick up on my tongue.

She reached into her bag. "That bad, huh?"

"No! No. It's actually kinda good. It's just a little-" I coughed. The intensity of the heat was only picking up. "-spicy."

She handed me her water bottle. I snatched it out of her hand and took a few long gulps.

It didn't help.

I lowered the bowl, blinking tears from my eyes. I couldn't focus on anything but the burning in my mouth.

Rin was getting a kick out of it. "You okay?"

"It's really fucking spicy."

She let out a laugh. "You're crying."

"Yeah. I am."

"More water?"

"Yes please."

The soup sat in my left hand, forgotten for the moment as I tried to drown out the unending heat. It felt like the fiery pits of hell had opened up in my mouth and there was absolutely no escaping them.

I downed the second bottle of water in no time. Rin was giggling maniacally at my pain. I raised a hand to my lips, feeling them curiously. "I think… I think my mouth is numb."

"I warned you," she said between laughs.

I stuck my tongue out into the air. The outside heat suddenly didn't feel so bad anymore. Rin clutched onto her stomach, almost in hysterics, as I wiped away a few stray tears from my face.

"You gonna… finish that?" She was completely out of breath.

I waved my hand uselessly in front of my face, trying to cease the heat. "No," I said, my lips and tongue still numb. "No, I'm not." The words came out sounding more like _Mo, I'm mot_.

We discarded the remainder of the soup, earning a fair share of dirty looks from the locals, and returned the bowl. Only as we turned the corner did the uncomfortable feeling begin to subside.

Rin smirked at me. "So. How was Brazilian culture?"

"Shut up," I pouted.

We entered the cottage to the sight of Yuma and Kanon sitting at the table, listening intently to Kanon's tablet.

I had finally cooled down enough to comfortably speak. "What's going-"

" _Shh!"_ They hissed in perfect unison.

Rin's amused expression disappeared. She pulled out a chair next to Kanon and listened.

" _-just thinking, you know, since you haven't been by in a few weeks-"_

" _Miku, I'm sorry. But I'm busy."_ The entire room seemed to darken at the sound of Luka's voice coming through the speakers.

" _I know! I know. But… don't you think you've been working a little too hard? And what about dinner tonight? I have it all set up-"_

" _Ah, shit. I can't. I have to take a trip tonight."_

" _I thought you were coming home."_

" _Can't. I've got business."_

Miku let out a very audible sigh before picking her voice back up. " _That's okay! Another time, then."_

" _Yeah. Another time."_

" _Well… I'll talk to you tomorrow, then?"_

" _If I have service._ " Luka's voice was flat, as if talking to the babysitter. " _Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me."_

" _Okay. Just… just try, okay?"_

" _Yeah."_

" _I love you."_

" _Love you too."_

" _Bye, Luka."_

Click.

"What a bitch," Yuma said the second the call ended.

Kanon nodded in agreement. "I almost feel bad for this Miku girl."

During the call, I had wandered over to the table. I glanced down at the screen. "What's that?" I asked.

"Her camera," Kanon answered, crossing her arms. "It took me a few hours to get it set up, but the tapper can leak into her camera, too."

The screen showed a bare, paneled ceiling. Miku's blue hair was barely visible from one of the corners. Light poured in from a window behind her.

"That's her office," she continued. "She never leaves it."

"That's… creepy," I said.

Kanon chuckled. "Yeah. It kinda is. But necessary."

It was incredibly uncomfortable to look at that screen as Miku worked on something out of sight. She had absolutely no idea we were watching.

"So she's not coming tonight," Yuma said. "We should probably let Flower and Anon know."

"She said she was going to an airport," I offered. "You don't think she's here?"

"Probably not. Miku asked if she was coming home. I'd assume home is here, or somewhere near here."

Kanon shook her head. "We have no idea where she's going, and even if we did, she'd be long gone by the time our plane finally landed there. We have to wait for her to come back."

Yuma rubbed at his temple. "It… it sounds like it could be a while."

Rin scoffed. It was the first noise she had made since the call began. "I don't get why Miku is working for her."

Yuma chuckled. "We can't exactly ask her."

"Why not?"

The three of us turned to Rin with confused expressions. "Why not?" Kanon repeated. "What do you mean why not? Because she can't know we're watching her."

"I'm sure Miku knows all the info we need. And we know where she is. Why don't we just go get the information out of her?"

Yuma opened his mouth to speak, then closed it.

"You're talking about torture, Rin," Kanon pointed out. "You really wanna hurt this girl for information?"

"I want to get this done," Rin responded flatly. "And I want it done now."

"No way," I said.

Now it was their turn to look up at me. The words had exited my mouth without my permission and they seemed just as stunned as me to hear my voiced opinion. They said nothing, which I assumed meant they wanted me to continue.

"She's…" I trailed off. "She's _nice._ Like, Meiko was a stereotypical mean, corrupted criminal. Luka's the same. But Miku doesn't seem like that."

"How do you know?" Rin asked with venom in her voice. "You act like you know her."

"I talked to her for maybe five seconds and I could already tell she wasn't a shitty person like Meiko. I don't think I can do something like that to an innocent person."

"She's not innocent," she pointed out. Her eyes had narrowed to a glare. "She's working for Luka-"

"You said it yourself! It makes no sense that a person like this is working for someone so evil. Maybe we're missing something here."

Kanon rolled her eyes. "It's obvious why Miku's working for her," she butted in. "She loves her."

Rin dropped her gaze to the floor.

"But I'm with Len. We can't just go in there and force the information from her."

Rin shot up from her seat. "But you're fine with killing people? You can't hide behind morals in your arguments, guys! We're killers!"

"Say it a little louder, will you?" Yuma growled. "It's not the same, Rin. Miku is not our target. Luka is."

"So you guys would rather sit in this godforsaken condo for the next few months waiting for your opportunity when we could go there _right now_ and take it ourselves?"

"Yeah," I answered instantly.

The other two remained silent as Rin's eyes shot up to mine. She was furious.

"You guys are fucking ridiculous," she muttered. With that, she stomped away from the conversation, climbing up the stairs and disappearing into one of the bedrooms.

"Oops," I said. "Made her mad."

"No," Yuma shook his head. "Not oops. She'll get over it. I don't know why she's so eager to make this scouting mission bloody."

Sure, Rin had been the one member of our group to become desensitized to the idea of death and suffering. She had experienced it the most. She had _caused_ it the most. But it seemed out of character for her. Rin had always liked to keep things at a distance. So why was she so eager to commit a violent act that was so… personal?

I sighed. "I should go talk to her." Something was wrong, I could tell. And I wanted to find out what.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Yuma said, opening his laptop once more and resuming his work. "I mean, if you want to be alone in a room with an angry assassin who wants to go torture some civilian, be my guest. But you're an idiot if you do."

The stairs looked uninviting. Maybe it would do her some good to be alone, anyway. "Alright," I said, sitting at the table. "What are you working on?" I asked Yuma.

"Still finishing up Flower's credentials."

"What's she doing?"

Kanon grinned. "She wants to own a gun store."

"And it sucks," Yuma muttered. "Her background check has to be perfect, her files have to be completely spotless. Ugh, why did she have to pick _that_?"

* * *

 _Tsk tsk tsk. Rin out here wanting to torture everyone._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	26. Chapter 26

Even in the dead of night, I found myself unable to sleep.

Somehow I had been lucky enough to find myself in one of the full-sized beds upstairs. From the bed, I could see out the window to my right. The moonlight was the only thing illuminating the empty street below.

Rin was supposedly in the room next to me. We shared a wall. I hadn't heard her since I had ditched Kanon and Yuma to their antics and climbed up the stairs to sleep. That had been hours ago.

Skye had been closed for a while, too. Anon and Flower were no doubt back by now, probably asleep themselves in the rooms downstairs. I seemed to be the only one awake in this sleeping house.

And, through all this tossing and turning, sleep was unable to find me. And it wasn't hard to figure out why.

 _She's gonna be pissed if I wake her up,_ I thought to myself. _Even more than she already is, probably._

But, sitting up in the lumpy bed, wearing my loose-fitting pajamas, my hair completely messed up from my restlessness, I went against my better judgment and stood, exiting the room.

The house was dark. Rin's door was right next to mine. At the bottom of the stairs, I could hear the faint tapping of Yuma's fingers on the keyboard. Motherfucker was still awake.

I took a deep breath, knocking on the wood.

"Uh, Rin?" I said softly. Hopefully, Yuma wouldn't hear me. The last thing I needed was him making fun of me for this. "Rin, you there?"

There was no answer.

 _Well, duh, idiot. She's asleep._ Nevertheless, I found my hand on the doorknob. "Rin? You up?" I slowly opened it to reveal an empty bedroom. At first, alarm bells went off in my head. But Rin's bag was sitting neatly in the corner, the sheets wrinkled slightly from where she had napped, the window firmly shut. She probably just snuck out while I was trying to sleep.

I closed the door. Downstairs, Yuma's typing had slowed. _Guess I have no choice_ , I thought. I had to ask him.

His back was to the stairs. He was exactly where I had left him hours ago, hunched over that laptop, the glow lighting up his face.

"Dude. Go to bed," I said.

He jumped at my words. "What the fuck, Len? You know not to sneak up on me like that."

"You're cranky. Go to bed."

"I _can't_ ," he insisted. "This needs to get done _now_ -"

"And you're gonna fuck it all up if you do it on no sleep. Can't afford to be sloppy."

Yuma paused, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. "...I guess," he agreed.

"So go to bed," I repeated.

He turned in his chair to face me. "What about you? What the hell are you doing up?"

I avoided his eyes, instead taking an interest in the empty room around him. "Have… have you seen Rin?"

He chucked. "Still on that?"

"Shut up."

He nodded his head towards the back door. "She went out into the backyard a few minutes ago."

I furrowed my brow. "We have a backyard?"

"Have you seen it? It's pretty awesome."

"Well," I answered with a deep breath. "Looks like I'm about to."

Yuma gave me a small grin. Closing his laptop, he glanced over at me one last time. "Just don't piss her off more, okay?" He didn't wait for my answer, instead opting to scoop up his gear and disappear into the room on the right side of the entrance.

"I'll try," I mumbled to the empty room. Though it wasn't _me_ who had made her mad, at least, not entirely. Yuma and Kanon had agreed with me on our plans.

But I was the only one trying to make her feel better about it. I guess that made me the bad guy.

I pushed open the door next to the dining table, revealing the enchanting sight of the condo's backyard.

It was open, with no fencing or anything separating the neatly-trimmed grass from the jungle surrounding us. There was an oddly shaped pool towards the far end. There was not a single straight edge in the clean water; it was made up entirely out of squiggles and circles as if someone asked a four-year-old to draw up the plans for it. Just beyond the water, on the far edge of the pool, was Rin. Her form was nothing but a dark outline against the Amazon River, which reflected the light of the moon as it flowed down the path beyond the house. She sat on the edge of the pool, her posture slumped and her legs dangling over the platform. They hung mere inches above the softly-flowing waters of the river.

Bracing myself one final time, I walked towards her.

"Whoever you are, leave me alone," she said as I grew closer. There was no masking my heavy footsteps.

"Looks lonely out here," I observed. Against her wishes, I walked around the edge of the pool, carefully balancing between its clean waters and the muddy river, and sat next to her.

She frowned but said nothing. She wore a tank top and shorts to sleep in, probably to keep away the uncomfortable heat.

"Can't sleep?" I asked her.

"I just want to get this done," she told me.

I looked down the ledge we both sat on. The waters brushed gently against my toes. It was unexpectedly warm. "It'll get done," I promised.

"But how? How does sitting her doing nothing get anything done?"

"That's how we found Meiko," I offered. "That's how we found Miku. Sitting around and doing nothing."

"But it won't be the same for Luka," she argued.

"Why not?"

She had been expecting the question, but she did not know how to answer it.

"Besides," I said with a small grin. "Don't you wanna go do more stupid shit with me around the city?"

She looked away. Probably to hide a smile.

I leaned closer, nudging her shoulder with mine. "I'll eat more Brazilian food if it makes you laugh," I joked.

"You're an idiot."

"But a _funny_ idiot."

After staring to her right for a few more seconds, she finally readjusted herself towards the river. I sat tall once more.

"I can't wait to be done," she admitted.

 _There it is._ "What do you mean?"

"I can't wait to be living in some house somewhere with a job, friends, pets… a real life."

I twiddled my thumbs in my laugh. "Torturing people isn't gonna get you any closer to that."

I expected her to get angry, but she didn't. Instead, she sighed. "Yeah. I know. Too extreme, probably."

"Why don't you ask Yuma to plan your stuff out next? That might help you while you wait."

She frowned again. "I… I don't know."

"Why not?"

She furrowed her brow. "W-what about-"

Out of nowhere, she cut herself off, glancing down towards her bare leg. Then, she let out the loudest, most high-pitched, blood-curdling scream I had ever heard. I froze as she kicked her leg out with such force that she fell backward, straight into the pool.

I had never been so confused in my life.

She resurfaced a moment later, still terrified. "What the _fuck?!_ Get it off, get it off, _get it off!"_

"Rin!" I yelled, trying to calm her down. "What the hell are you-"

She pointed to the ground right next to me, backing quickly away to the other end of the pool. "That thing! Get it away from me!"

"What?" I looked down at the spot next to me, where Rin had been sitting only seconds before. My eyes widened in disbelief.

" _There!_ That… that _thing._ Do you see it?!"

"Rin," I said, almost too stunned to laugh. "It's a snail."

"It's _disgusting!"_ Her hair clung to her face and her clothes flowed in the water around her. "Throw it back in the river!"

The little guy had retreated back into his shell at Rin's panic attack and was only just beginning to emerge from its seclusion. It was small, definitely no bigger than my hand, and moved just a slowly as I imagined.

Staring down at the small mollusk, hear the water trickle as Rin put as much distance between the two of them, I erupted into the strongest fit of laughter I had ever known.

"D-Don't fucking _laugh!_ " She screamed. Her arms were crossed in front of her soaked shirt. "Get it out of here!" She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she had fallen into the pool.

"You're… you're fucking scared of _slugs?_ " I managed to choke out between my hysterics.

She pouted. "Fuck off! Get rid of it!"

Still giggling like a maniac, I picked the snail up gently by the shell. The gooey animal drooped down in the air, dangling precariously.

Rin watched my every movement with terror in her eyes.

"You kill people," I said. "And you're scared of snails."

"You're fucking next if you don't get rid of that thing."

I narrowed my eyes in malice. "But it just wants a _friend_ ~"

"Len. I swear to fucking God-"

I swung my legs over the ledge, letting them submerge into the pool. "Just pet it!" I insisted.

Her eyes widened. "If I had my gun, I'd shoot that thing out of your hand."

"Come on." I stood in the pool, beginning to wade towards her with the snail still in hand.

She tensed. "Don't. You. Dare."

"Just _one_ little-"

" _No!"_ She threw her hands into the water, splashing me with all of her strength.

Once the wave cleared away, I blinked the water from my eyes and threw the snail back into the safety of the river.

"Fuck you," Rin repeated, quieter. She crossed her arms in a pout.

" _Snails,_ Rin?"

"Fuck off."

I chuckled once more. "That's for laughing at me earlier."

Her expression didn't soften.

The back door flew open, causing both of us to jump as the others sprinted into the backyard. Awoken by Rin's screaming, no doubt.

"What happened?!" Flower shouted, her eyes still shut halfway. "What- what-"

I grinned. "Oh, nothing. Rin just decided to go for a night swim."

She shot me a glare over her shoulder. But underneath that frown, it was obvious she was holding back a smile.

"Come on, Len. It's our shift."

I rolled over in my bed to face the figure in the doorway. "Already?" I groaned.

Rin leaned against the doorframe. She was already dressed for the day. "Yup. Come on."

"I'll be down in a second."

"If I don't see you down there in five minutes, I'm dragging you down myself."

I grinned, sitting up and swinging my legs over the side. "You wanna carry me to Skye, too?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just get ready." She gave me one last glance before shutting the door. I listened to her gentle footsteps travel across the room and down the stairs.

In no time, I found myself following her. My hair was tamed a bit, pulled back to keep it from sticking up at odd ends. I wore yet another pair of civilian clothes. They were really making me miss our uniforms.

When I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, I found everyone gathered around the table. Flower and Kanon sat next to each other, each with a bowl of cereal in their hands. Anon was standing next to a pouting Rin near the front door while Yuma, of course, was typing away at his laptop.

"Hey, dude," Yuma called. He looked a lot better after a night of sleep, though fatigue was still wearing at his face. "You're with me today."

"Hm? Why?"

He turned in his chair to give me a smile. "We're planning your life out, next."

I glanced up at Rin. She was staring down at the floor in front of her. "But what about-"

"Anon's covering for you. Now come on," he waved me towards him.

I hesitantly took the empty seat beside him.

"Don't be late when you come get us, okay?" Anon said. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she spoke. "I'm not looking forward to a double shift."

"We won't be late," Kanon promised.

Anon smiled, then tugged at Rin's sleeve. The girl was insane to have chosen long sleeves on a day like this. "Let's go!" She said, pulling her for the door.

"Bye guys," Rin said quietly over her shoulder.

"See ya," I called with the others.

She glanced over her shoulder one last time before disappearing through the door with Anon.

"Okay," Yuma said, sitting tall in his chair. "You have any idea what you want to do?"

I scratched at the back of my next. "Uh, not really."

"Okay. Let's just start with your job. What do you wanna do?"

I was very aware of Flower and Kanon listening to our conversation. "I… I don't know."

"Well you gotta think of something. What did you do before?"

"I worked in an office."

He raised his eyebrows. "You wanna do it again?"

"Not really," I answered with a shake of my head. "It was pretty boring."

"You went to college before, right? What'd you go for?"

"Industrial Design."

He furrowed his brow. "So… designing products? What were you going for?"

The girls didn't even hide the fact that they were eavesdropping. "I… I wanted to design cars," I answered slowly.

Yuma sighed. "And you didn't make it?"

"Nah. Wasn't _that_ good."

He stared at his laptop screen deep in thought. "Okay, okay," he dismissed the subject. "What about location? Where do you wanna live?"

I shrugged.

"Len. You're not helping."

"I have _no_ idea, dude," I told him honestly.

"We'll start with where you can't go, then," he said. "You can't go back to LA. In fact, to be safe, we should probably keep you out of California altogether. You can't go to Florida, either. And I wouldn't really feel comfortable pulling you in any of the states surrounding those two, either. Just in case someone recognizes you."

"So… no US?"

"You could go to Colorado, Wyoming, or any of those states, I guess. But if you wanna be safe, I'd advise against it."

 _Where does Rin want to go?_ The thought was almost enough to bring a blush to my face. I pushed it forcefully out of my head. "I… I just… I really don't know. There are so many options. Where are you guys going?"

"Quebec," Yuma answered.

"Kansas," Flower said, swallowing another bite of her breakfast.

I glanced at Kanon.

She hid her eyes. "I haven't decided yet," she responded quickly.

"I know how much you loved London," Yuma joked. "Wanna go there?"

"No thanks."

"What about Canada? We could all learn French together up in Quebec," he offered.

"I took French in high school. I'm good."

Yuma's shoulders slumped, clearly growing frustrated. "Where do you _not_ want to go?"

I thought for a moment, staring blankly at the bare table in front of me. "I guess… I can't do the US. I'm not a fan of Canada. Probably won't do South America, either." _I could never get used to the food._ I remembered the soup yesterday with a shiver.

"Okay," Yuma said slowly. "That still leaves a lot. Keep going."

"I don't really want to go to Africa."

"That leaves Europe, Asia, and Australia."

I chuckled. "Australia is too deadly."

"You wanna go live in the arctic?" Flower laughed. "With all the penguins?"

"Yeah, no. We can check that one off, too."

"So," Yuma concluded. "Europe or Asia. We're getting somewhere."

We weren't getting anywhere. The next hour or so continued in a similar manner, with no definitive answers to be found. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Returning to the real world wasn't something I had planned on doing, ever. And now I was not only being forced to go back, but I had nothing. No friends, no family, no job, no home, nothing. I had to rebuild everything from the ground up. I briefly imagined what it would be like to go back to LA and just show up at the bar my old friends used to frequent. I'd bet a good amount of money they still went there all the time. What would they say? What would _I_ say? " _You guys are never gonna believe where I've been for the last few months."_

I chuckled.

"This is hopeless," Yuma finally said. "Kanon, you're up next. Figure your shit out, dude. Then we'll get you set up."

I felt a bit guilty, making him so frustrated like that. "Sorry, man. I just really don't know-"

"Just figure it out, okay?" He was trying his best to hide the frustration. He wasn't doing a good job.

With a sigh, I stood from my seat, letting Kanon take my place. _Guess I could have gone with Rin after all,_ I thought sadly.

With nothing else do to, I climbed the stairs, on my way to make up for the sleep I had lost the night before.

* * *

 _Who would have known our scary little assassin was afraid of slugs?_

 _Also, thank you guys so much for reviewing! I love reading what you guys think about the story and it really makes my day :)_

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	27. Chapter 27

"Len, this is stupid."

"Come on! I heard this place is really cool. It's like the wildlife refuge from Fairbanks, but _way_ better." I pulled RIn along the sidewalk towards a small building. Behind it, tall trees rose high into the sky. The air was heavy with the humidity of the mini rainforest ahead of us.

A sign reading _Bosque De Ciencias_ sat in front of the entrance building.

"Do you know what it means?" Rin asked, still dragging behind me a little.

"Something… Park. I dunno. But let's go."

She rolled her eyes. "There are probably better things we could be doing right now."

I turned on her. "Why are you always so scared to go do fun stuff?"

I was joking and my words seemed to impact her more than I intended. She furrowed her brow. "I am not!"

"You didn't want to go do laser tag," I pointed out.

She frowned, avoiding my eyes.

"You didn't want to go to the zoo," I added.

" _Fine._ Fine. Let's go."

With a grin, we started towards the entrance once more.

The building was just as hot and humid as the air outside. A wooden sidewalk wound out the exit opposite of where we entered. A group of excited kids danced along the path, their mothers frantically running after them. The walls were the same smooth cement as the rest of the city. We paid our way in and followed the crowd.

It was like we had been transported to another world once we left the other side of the building. Although we were still in the heart of the city, there was no sign of any buildings, cars, or crowds. A forest of deep green stretched in front of us. Birds chirped constantly in the canopy above us. The cloudy sky was barely visible through the winding and weaving branches above us.

"Do you think it's gonna rain?" Rin asked. She seemed to be looking for any excuse to leave.

"Even if it does, we'll be fine," I promised her. "Now, come on! There are animals down here."

"Animals?"

We walked further down the path. The ground below us alternated between wooden bridges, dirt paths, and stone sidewalks.

Rin glanced nervously around the jungle. "Are they… are they in cages?"

"Probably," I answered with a grin.

"That's… reassuring."

"Chill out. They wouldn't let us on the path if it wasn't safe."

After a few minutes of wandering, we crossed another large bridge. The soft trickle of a river below us filled the area.

"Look!" I grabbed the railing, pointing into the water. A log stuck out of the water. Sitting on top of it was a family of turtles.

Rin squinted to see them. "Turtles?"

"Yup. Wild turtles."

They all crowded onto the small log. "How many are there?" She asked.

"...Five? I think?" They varied in sizes, but each one wore an identical dark shell on its back.

"Are they okay?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, Rin. They're fine."

"Well, I'm just asking because they aren't moving or anything-"

"They're fine," I assured her. "Better than any turtle in a zoo."

She glanced towards them one last time, her eyes shining but her expression oddly blank, before turning away. "What's up here?"

Beyond the bridge, the wooden path stretched up into a staircase, leading to a path suspended over the jungle floor. I jumped ahead of her. "Let's go see."

I flew up the stairs. She followed softly after me.

We walked along the path for a long time, stopping to see all the colorful plants, tall trees, and curious wildlife along the way. The air smelled fresh, clean from any evidence of the nearby city. It was hot, too. Like every other day. People walked past us occasionally, but the screaming children were long gone ahead of us. Most of the time, it was just the two of us, walking through the woods alone.

I expected Rin to lighten up at some point, but she never did. To my dismay, she remained her quiet, reserved self for most of the trip. Part of me was disappointed. It felt like I had failed in making her smile during one of our adventures together.

Once we descended the stilted-path, we turned a final corner. Suddenly, we were greeted with the sight of a crowd in front of us. They were gathered around a small pond. A metal railing lined the water, and several people were leaning dangerously far over it. The sidewalk sloped downwards along it, allowing people to see the animals from under the water.

"What's in there?" Rin asked, her flat voice doing nothing to betray her curiosity.

"I dunno. Let's go see."

She crossed her arms shyly. "In that crowd?"

"No, no. There's a little underwater area down here. We can see through the glass." There were no people at the bottom and that probably meant there were no animals at the bottom. But it was worth a shot.

We skirted the crowd, still unable to see the animals in the water beyond, and continued down the sloped sidewalk to the glass. Clear blue water filled the habitat on the other side. Rin stepped ahead of me, pressing a hand against the glass and peering through.

"I don't-"

Just as she began speaking, she jumped back at the appearance of a large sea creature. It was huge, easily the size of a grown person, and swam its way through the water with a thick tail and a pair of arm-sized flippers.

"What _is_ that?" Rin asked, taking a step back. Finally, she wore an expression that wasn't blank.

"They're manatees," I answered, staring at the creature with awe. "This place is famous for their manatee sanctuary."

She shot me a glare over her shoulder. "You know they were here, and you didn't tell me?"

"It was a surprise," I defended. I slid my hands casually into my pockets as Rin took another timid step towards the glass.

The manatee swam slowly through the water, dipping in and out of sight between the rocks and plant life that grew at the floor of the water. Another one came in sight, this one not as large as the first, before disappearing towards the other end of the pool once more.

She chuckled slightly. "They look like fat dolphins."

"Don't let them hear you say that. They might get mad."

She rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

I leaned against the glass with a sigh. "Do you not like them?"

"What? Of course I do. They're cool," she answered with a cross of her arms.

"You don't look very excited," I observed.

"How would you know?" The sass in her voice seemed as more of a defense mechanism than anything. She was excited, she was just trying to hide it.

"Well…" I trailed off, gazing slowly into the water. "You're not doing that thing where your eyes get all big and you hop around like a little kid."

Her eyes widened and she looked away. "What's good about acting like a child?" She asked softly, obviously hiding a blush from me.

I didn't know where this wave of confidence was coming from, but I found it almost overwhelming. "It's cute," I answered with a shrug.

Her eyes snapped back to me, then slowly turned back to the manatees. There were four of them in sight, now. They swam in circles around each other playfully.

There was no sound between us except the chatter of the nearby crowd and the soft waves above us.

"Come on," I finally said. " Skye's probably closing soon. Let's go see what the others are up to." I turned away, then looked over my shoulder to see Rin still perched against the glass.

She didn't move.

"Unless," I said, turning to face her. "You want to stay a little longer?"

Her fingers intertwined nervously into each other in front of her chest. "Maybe… maybe just a few more minutes." She offered me a feeble smile.

I returned it, stepping back to her side once more.

"There you guys are!" Flower greeted us with more enthusiasm than I had ever heard in my life. I narrowed my eyes, suspicious at the happy scene before Rin and I. We had stepped into the living room of our cottage to see Anon, Kanon, Yuma, and Flower all dressed in their civilian clothes with wide smiles on their faces. They each had their shoes on like they were going somewhere.

Rin seemed just as confused as I was. "Did… did you guys find Lu-"

Kanon waved a hand dismissively. "No! All this shit has been too much. We're going out."

"Out?" I asked. My eyes flickered to Yuma. "You're going, too?"

He shrugged. "I need to get away from this screen. And we're all probably dying soon anyway. Might as well have some fun before it happens."

Flower nodded. "He's right."

"Where the hell are you guys even _going_?" Rin asked.

Kanon crossed her arms proudly. "Yuma and I saw a little street party on our way home from Skye. Thought we'd grab you guys and go check it out."

"Street party?" Rin furrowed her brow.

"It's a Brazilian thing," Anon answered with a smile. "Basically just a bunch of tables and chairs thrown everywhere with food and music. And dancing."

"Um…"

"And you guys are coming, too," Flower concluded.

I shrugged. "Okay."

Rin seemed unsure, but she knew she didn't have a choice. So she agreed as well. Five minutes later, all six of us paraded down the sidewalk towards the sound of a speaker somewhere along the narrow streets of Manaus.

"For a business trip, there really isn't a lot of business going on," I observed.

Yuma scoffed. "Speak for yourself."

"Yeah, Len. He's right," Kanon agreed. They walked side by side ahead of the rest of us. "Those two call each other every day. Sometimes twice, or even three times. And deciphering each one for any clues is exhausting."

"What have they been saying?" Rin asked, seemingly glad to talk about something work-related.

Kanon sighed. "Mostly the same stuff. ' _Come over, I miss you!'_ and then ' _Sure, babe! I'll be there tomorrow!'_ and then the next day, Luka hits her with the ' _Sorry, I'm busy!'_ or ' _I forgot!'_ It's kinda sad, honestly."

Rin furrowed her brow. "What if she never shows up?"

"She has to, eventually."

"I don't think she does."

"Shut up, you two," Flower scolded them. "Tonight, we have no idea who those two are. I just wanna have one fun night where I can get wasted and wake up in a random alley in Brazil."

I chuckled. "Haven't had a night like that in a while," I admitted, remembering all the stupid antics my friends and I had gotten into.

Flower flashed me a devious smile. "Tonight's the night."

The streets were devoid of people. Once we traveled further into the city, orange street lights began to illuminate the path before us. The setting sun was too low to provide any light but did wonders in casting the sky in different shades of pink and purple.

"I hear music!" Kanon giggled excitedly. Sure, I'd hung out with Rin in public before, but everyone else? This was a new experience altogether. Despite never having done this before, I still felt an odd sense of deja vu. Like I had experienced this before.

Well… that's because I had. With my old friends. Before I supposedly committed suicide.

Anon clapped her hands together, laughing with glee. "Ah, I can't wait! Come on!" Out of nowhere, she grabbed Rin and Flower's wrists, pulling them away from our group. Kanon laughed, running after the girls.

Rin shot me a concerned look before they turned the corner on the street. The music was loud, now. We were here.

"Guess it's just us, huh?" Yuma fell into step next to me.

"What, you gonna ask me to dance or something?"

He punched me in the shoulder. "You wish."

We rounded the corner. It seemed we had found all of the mission pedestrians. Between a narrow road, not a moving car in sight, a throng of people moved, some talking, some eating, most dancing to the music played by speakers that I could not see. Stringed lights hung across the street, tethered between the two tall buildings. It was exactly how Anon described it. There were cheap, plastic tables and chairs dispersed along the sidewalks while most of the dancing happened on the pavement of the road itself. The girls had disappeared through the crowd. It caused a ripple of unease to go through me.

"Let's find somewhere to sit," Yuma suggested.

Keeping my eyes on the crowd, I followed him. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going, as most of my attention was drawn to the crowd in an attempt to find the girls, but I managed to follow Yuma through the sea of tables without much of a problem. The scent of cigarette smoke and alcohol filled the air. Everyone we passed wore a smile on their face.

"There they are," I said aloud, spotting the four of them near the edge of the street. A group of locals had found them, seemingly instructing them on a dance that many of the other women were participating in as well.

"They look like they're having fun," Yuma joked, pulling out one of the white, plastic chairs and sitting in it. I sat next to him, my eyes glued to the girls for fear that I might lose them again. It would be very easy to be lost in a place like this.

I chuckled. "I guess."

A trio of girls, looking to be around the same age as them, were waving their arms and swinging their hips to the music. They would do a couple of steps, then our girls would copy them. Anon and Kanon seemed focused on every movement of their new friends, trying very hard to imitate their steps. Flower followed along, though not with nearly as much enthusiasm. Rin stood to the side. She wasn't participating at all. Instead, she hugged herself tightly and scanned the crowd. Her expression was blank but it was easy to tell that she was insanely uncomfortable. And probably trying to find us.

I waved my arm as her eyes passed over the tables.

"Dude, she's not gonna see us," Yuma told me. Just as the words left his mouth, Rin's eyes stopped on us. She gave a small smile, instantly relaxing ever so slightly.

"You have pink hair." I lowered my arm. "How can she _not_ see us?"

He shrugged. "Fair point."

Kanon laughed, the sound barely audible over the crowd and the music, pulling Rin off of the curb and forcing her to participate in their dance. Their new friends laughed loudly as well. And spoke English, it looked like.

"I'm about to get trashed," Yuma said. "I gotta find where they're serving drinks. You want anything?"

I shook my head. "Nah. I'm okay. Just hurry back, alright? I don't like us all being split up like this."

"Hah," Yuma threw his head back before standing from his chair. "We've made you too paranoid. It's a party. Have fun. Get drunk. I'm bringing you something."

Before I could protest, he walked away from the table towards a line in the distance. If that was the line for alcohol, count me out. It looked like a half hour wait.

As much as I wanted to talk to people, look around, and enjoy myself, I couldn't do it. Protectiveness for my squad was more prominent in my mind, and I knew I wouldn't be able to relax with the knowledge that we were all split up, with no way to contact each other, in a foreign country where we also had enemies.

 _Like they can't handle themselves,_ I scoffed at my worry, my eyes still watching the girls. Out of the six of us, I was probably still the one most likely to fuck something up. And yet here I was, worrying about Yuma or one of the girls getting into trouble. _They can handle themselves just fine._

But, still.

Kanon stood behind Rin, her hands clamped around Rin's wrists, puppeting her into the movements of the dance. Rin grinned, pushing herself away from the girl and instead standing next to her while the locals showed them the footwork one more time. The music echoed through the road, the foreign words complete gibberish to me.

The more they danced, the more I noticed Rin relax. Before long, she was smiling and laughing just like the others. Even Flower had loosened up a bit, dramatically waving her arms in the air to mimic the locals and eliciting laughs from the others in response. I couldn't help but wonder if she'd had anything to drink.

After another try, Rin tripped over her own feet, sending her sprawling right into Kanon. The two of them fell over, disappearing for a second onto the pavement before pushing back to their feet, each in hysterical laughter.

I smiled.

"You're staring."

I looked over my shoulder to see that Yuma had returned unexpectedly quickly, a beer bottle in each hand.

"I'm not staring." Leaning back in my chair, I looked him dead in the eye.

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm just- I'm just making sure we don't lose them."

"Uh huh," he nodded his head, unconvinced.

"Whatever," I responded with a roll of my eyes.

He sat back down in his chair and set the beer on the table across from me. I ignored it half out of distaste for it and half out of anger that he'd caught me… staring.

"So that's why you don't know where you're going," he said after a moment, taking a drink from his bottle.

"What?" When I spoke, I didn't look at him. Rin tripped again and was caught this time by Flower. Rin pushed off of the girl with a laugh.

"You can't decide on where you want to go after all this because you want to go with Rin, don't you?"

The question was so unexpected and yet so obviously true that I didn't even know how to respond. So I didn't.

He took another drink. "Have you talked to her about it yet?"

Rin repeated the steps again, in perfect unison with the others, this time making it beyond the move that caused her to fall twice before. The others, including the locals, cheered in unison at her success.

"I… I mentioned it," I muttered, not entirely comfortable talking to Yuma about it. With a sigh, I grabbed the bottle from the table. _Where you go, I go._ I had told her. Did she know I was serious?

I raised the bottle to my lips and took a swig.

"What'd she say?" Yuma asked.

I shook my head. "...Nothing, really."

"You probably need to talk to her about it again, then. Like, _actually_ talk to her."

I was afraid to. Talking to her about something as serious as that would force me to admit that my feelings for her may have escalated beyond friendship. It was weird for me to even admit it to myself.

But why? How could I have gone from hating her, letting her beat me up with a pole and yell at me every ten seconds, to running across rooftops and calling her cute _to her face_? How did I get there? It had seemed so sudden, like this feeling had come out of nowhere. Yet, at the same time, it felt like it had been gradually building this whole time. Through every adventure; saving her in London, watching her enthusiasm in her first game of laser tag, our movie day in Mexico, how she had snuggled up against me during the scare with Flower and Anon in Fairbanks. Through all of that, something had changed. It was obvious to me now.

But why?

Across the tables, Rin smiled at the girls next to her as they launched into another round of their new dance.

The answer came to me quickly. Sure, she was an attractive person with an adorable smile and eyes that could light up the room. But it was more than that. She was determined. Adventurous. She knew what she wanted and she'd stop at nothing to get it. She was brave, too. Even after almost dying in London, she was able to sneak into Meiko's own home and stand tall against her. She had been so scared. Yet she kept going.

She always had a plan.

"Are you gonna talk to her?" Yuma's voice brought me back to reality. The music faded back into my ears, the sights and smells of the scenes around me touched my senses once again.

I took another drink. This time, it was Kanon who fell at that difficult step. I could faintly hear Rin's amused taunting from my seat. Kanon rose from the ground, standing much taller than her, and retorted her own taunts. They both wore smiles.

I didn't even mention how competitive she was.

"Uh, yeah. I think so," I said, just to keep Yuma from asking any more questions. My words fumbled clumsily in my mouth. _Fuck,_ I thought. _Grown adult. Still fumbling words over a girl._

But it was Rin so I couldn't be too hard on myself.

"Well you should," he advised. "Otherwise, she could go somewhere on the other side of the world and you might never see her again."

 _That_ wasn't happening. And yet just the thoughts running through my head were enough to get my heart thumping in my chest. When was the last time I had felt like this? There had been girls in college, but none more than a casual hookup. I was suddenly reminded of the nervousness I had felt when I first came to these people. It like I was back on that metal table in the infirmary, waking up in the Montana base to Anon's friendly grin, the others gathered cautiously around the table behind her, for the first time.

These thoughts raced through my head a million miles per second. "I know," I finally answered, taking another long drink. I was stunned to find my bottle was already empty.

Yuma chuckled. "Knew you wanted some."

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, the bottle held limply in my hands. Some more girls, who seemed to be friends of the locals, had joined in on their dancing. I felt a tinge of frustration every time Rin was blocked from sight.

"What about you?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder towards him. "Is Kanon going with you."

He had been mid-drink. With a small sputter and a cough, he set his bottle down on the table. "Uh, yeah. She is."

"You talked to her about it?"

He nodded slowly. "We're, uh, I'm forging us a marriage license."

I widened my eyes. "Whoa."

"Yeah."

"That's… intense."

"It'd be a lot easier than getting one later," he pointed out. There was a small blush rising to his cheeks. "Just don't tell her I told you, okay? I don't even think she's told Anon yet."

"Like, I knew you two were a thing, but marriage?"

He smiled nervously and avoided my eyes. "It's, uh, been going on for a lot longer than you've been here."

I nodded, looking back towards Rin and the others. They were right where I'd seen them before. "Well, congrats, I guess."

He chuckled. "Thanks."

A silence fell between us. Yuma let out a deep breath and down the rest of his drink.

"When do we go get them?" He asked, rising from the table once more.

I shrugged. "Whenever you wanna leave, I guess. But they look fine for now." I handed him my empty bottle.

He rolled his eyes. "Why do I have to be the beer bitch?"

I shot him a sly smile. "Because I won at arm wrestling."

A huff escaped him. "Fuck you," he murmured before turning his back and returning to the line for drinks.

Rin's laugh echoed through the street once again.

* * *

 _About time you figured that one out, Len. Jeez. It's only been thirty chapters._

 _Also, PSA, your reviews give me life. For real. Love you guys._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	28. Chapter 28

The next morning, Rin and I stood outside of Skye, watching for something, anything, to happen.

We leaned against the glass in our usual spot in silence. It had become second nature to look over the crowds as they passed, occasionally earning second glances from some of the locals. This had been our spot for almost a week now and people were beginning to recognize us. We'd probably have to switch things up tomorrow.

I wanted to tell Rin this. But ever since Yuma and I's conversation last night, I found talking to her extremely difficult. Not only was the subject at hand a little sensitive, but the fact that I was a grown adult and found myself tongue-tied around a girl was downright embarrassing. And yet I could do nothing about it.

So we stood in silence, both with our arms crossed, both leaning against the building behind us, both examining the scene in front of us. Our elbows were almost touching.

"There she is," Rin said suddenly, causing me to jump a bit. I followed her eyes to a spot on the sidewalk across the street were a pair of unmistakable pigtails swung through the crowd.

"She's on her phone," I observed, speaking for the first time in the few hours we had been here.

"Means the others are getting info right now," she answered. We watched as she walked up the steps to the front doors, pushing her way into the office building.

We fell into a silence once again.

 _Just talk to her, idiot. Say something. Anything._

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "How was that party last night?"

 _Anything except that._

She shrugged, a small smile lighting up her face. "It was alright. That whole dance thing was super weird, though."

"Why?"

"Just… interacting with people. Not my forte."

I chuckled. "I'm the same way."

She moved her hands as she spoke. Like she was trying to repeat the steps in her head. "There was this one part where I kept falling, too. And everyone would laugh at me every time." She glanced up at me. "I mean, it was pretty funny, but still."

"Yeah," I grinned. "I saw."

She ignored the statement that basically admitted I had been staring at her the whole night. Or maybe it flew over her head. "And then Kanon messed it up after that. It's funny because she was giving me the most shit, too."

I slid my hands into my pockets. "Are you sure it's okay for us to be talking with the locals? Those girls know all four of you now."

She shrugged. "We gave them fake names. _I_ -" she added with a dramatic flourish. "-was Rebecca."

I shook my head. "You do _not_ look like a-"

"Go home, fuckers," a familiar voice called. I wasn't even surprised anymore when Flower and Anon appeared out of nowhere for their shift.

Flower leaned against the wall next to me and yawned.

"Tired?" I asked her. After their dancing session, the girls had decided to bring drinks home to the cottage while Yuma and I passed out. Seemed like Flower was feeling the effects now.

"Shut up," she muttered, crossing her arms. "And go home. Before I change my mind and make you cover me."

Anon was, as always, her cheerful self. "She's just a little grumpy," she said with a smile. "She'll get over it."

Rin pushed herself off of the building. "Don't gotta ask me twice. Feels like my bed is calling me." She stretched her arms. "We saw her going in a couple of minutes ago. She was talking on the phone."

"Alright." Flower nodded at the relayed information.

"But that's it. So I'm going home." She turned her attention to me. "Let's get out of here."

"Bye guys!" Anon waved as we left.

The conversation had been cut short and I found myself unable to continue it on our walk home.

We had learned better than to walk into the cottage speaking. Yuma and Kanon could be intercepting a phone call at any time. And when we entered the living room, it was obvious that they were. Miku was _still_ , or maybe once again, on the phone with Luka.

But we seemed to only be catching the tail end of it.

" _-heading to the airport now,"_ said Luka in a hurried voice. Rin and I sat beside the two as they hunched over Kanon's tablet. " _Gonna be around a thirteen-hour flight. And then I'll be home."_

Miku sounded like she was jumping for joy on the other end of the line. " _Really?! Are you going to stop by before going home?"_

" _We'll see if I have the time."_

This seemed grim to us, but to Miku, who always got her hopes up at these half-assed promises, thought it was the best news in the world. " _Okay! Do you want to come here? Or should I go there?"_

Luka sighed. " _You know I don't want you near-"_

" _I know, I know. Sorry. So you'll come here?"_

" _...I'll try."_

" _Okay! I'll see you tomorrow then?"_

" _I said I'll try."_

" _Okay! Bye, Luka!"_

" _Bye."_

Click.

"This is sad to listen to," Kanon muttered. "Like… I feel bad. And I don't even know the girl."

Yuma waved a hand to dismiss her. "I know it sucks, but let's just not talk about it. Stay focused on the task at hand."

"She lives somewhere around here," Rin observed. "But it's not Skye."

"It's probably the rainforest," Yuma said with a sigh. "I'd bet good money her base is in the rainforest."

"How are we supposed to find it? The Amazon stretches-"

"I know," Yuma cut Rin off as she began to raise her voice. "I know. Maybe we'll have to tail her like we did with Meiko."

"That sounds way too easy," I pointed out.

"Because it is," Kanon agreed. "There's no way we'll be able to follow a guarded convoy through the rainforest without being discovered."

"Let's just find her first and worry about following her later," suggested Yuma. "If she comes to Skye, maybe we can just take her out there. There's no need to follow her to the base if we don't have to."

"That's true," I agreed.

Rin let out a frustrated sigh. "So… we're just gonna keep waiting?"

Yuma nodded slowly. "Yup."

She closed her eyes as if trying to contain her words. After a tense few seconds, she opened them once more, mirroring Yuma's nods. "Okay."

I spent the rest of the day looking over my gear in my room. Though the bag had been over my shoulder constantly since we landed, I hadn't cleaned and inspected my gear for any malfunctions since Fairbanks. Catching up with the maintenance took me the entire rest of the day.

Plus, it felt kinda nice to shut myself in my room for a little while.

As the sun began to set, I heard Yuma and Kanon leave the cottage. Half an hour later, Flower and Anon returned. I had no idea where Rin was. I had a hunch, however, that she had locked herself in her room like me.

The lower the sun set, the hungrier I became. I was determined to not leave the safety of my room, however, so I scavenged a bag of chips from my luggage and stared out the window as I enjoy my meager dinner. It was enough to hold me over for the night. Tomorrow, I'd get the courage to emerge from my room once again.

The sun had set. An hour afterward, the door downstairs opened again. Kanon and Yuma had returned. The lack of yelling told me that nothing eventful had happened for the day and I was free to fall asleep.

I sat on the edge of the unmade bed, staring out the window as the last rays of light disappeared over the horizon. The Amazon River reflected the bright colors of the sky. For the first time in a while, I remembered LA. The sun used to set just like this against the ocean. I had been able to see it out of my apartment. But, back then, I never really thought much about it. Now, it was much different.

Afraid to fall into a reminiscent mood, I stood from the bed and closed the curtains. They weren't nearly as thick as the drapes in Fairbanks. Light trickles in around them, but I would at least be able to sleep.

With a sigh, I cleared my bed of my remaining gear, setting it gently in my bag, and pulled the covers over me.

The entirety of the situation swept over me in a giant wave and I found myself falling in and out of an uneasy sleep throughout the entire night. Here I was, worrying about my love life, while I was on the brink of a full-on war.

Yuma was planning our lives after all of this, but the joke he made yesterday echoed in my mind. _We're all probably dying soon, anyway._ Would his planning be for nothing? I had never interacted with this Luka girl before, but she sounded dangerous. What really were our chances of surviving this trip?

Never before had I been this aware of my own life. A sudden appreciation for the air filling my lungs and the heart beating in my chest rose up in me. Even laying there, doing absolutely nothing but drifting in and out of sleep, I was aware of how easily all of that could be taken away at any moment in the next few days.

It was an uneasy feeling, to say the least.

These fears swirled through my head throughout the entire night. I woke up over and over again, each time glancing out the window to see a dark sky through the curtains. _Will this night ever end?_ I asked myself at one point. I had dreams that were just as unsettling as my thoughts, but each time I woke up, they disappeared from my memory.

Does Rin feel the same way? Does _everyone_ feel the same way? How do they deal with it? Rin especially. She's the one always just near death, causing it or in danger of it. Of all of us, she'd be the most familiar with this feeling. I couldn't imagine living with it.

I was half asleep when I reached my hand out, eyes still closed, and furrowed my brow. The bed next to me was empty. _Where is she?_ My muddled brain wondered.

"Rin?" I asked softly, my voice hoarse from sleep. The sheets were soft, but they weren't what I was looking for. "Rin?"

I blinked my eyes open, then let out a sigh. _Idiot,_ I thought, looking at the empty spot next to me. In my sleep, I seemed to have forgotten that Rin wasn't with me, to begin with. She was probably next do-

I propped myself up on my arms as the door suddenly opened. The light in the hall was off, but I could tell from the little light provided by my think curtains that Rin was standing in the door.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly.

I widened my eyes. "Uh, what? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

She was in her pajamas, hugging herself. "You… called?"

"What-"

"The walls here are pretty thin, Len," she explained. Though I couldn't see it in the dark, I could hear the smile in her voice.

 _Fuck._ How do I explain _that?_ There was no way out of this awkward situation. I was infinitely thankful for the darkness that hung over the room; it hid my red face from Rin's eyes. I felt my heartbeat picking up. Sure, we'd slept in the same bed before, cuddled, whatever. But we'd never really acknowledged it. And telling her the truth would be doing just that.

I didn't really have a choice, though. She still stood in the doorway. Waiting for an answer.

"I, uh. I just… I thought you were here. So I was confused when you _weren't_. I was basically asleep. Um… sorry."

I couldn't read her expression in the dark. After a few long moments, I heard her soft giggle. It rang through the silent room like a train horn. A really sweet train horn.

Then, the door shut. I thought she had returned to her room until I heard her footsteps across the floor. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, she slid under the covers next to me, snuggling her nose into my chest like she did every time. I clamped my eyes shut. My heart, that she could definitely hear, was beating embarrassingly quick. I took a deep breath in an attempt to slow it. If I thought I would have trouble sleeping before-

I frowned. Sure, she might have heard me through the walls, but there was no way I had woken her up. "...Couldn't sleep?" I asked quietly at the realization.

She shook her head, her hair brushing against my cheek in the process.

I blinked down at her a few times. My own depressing thoughts had bothered me through the night and the image of her tossing and turning to the same troubles was enough to make my heart ache. "You okay?"

She refused to look up at me, instead opting to hide in my arms. A sigh escaped her. Just when I decided she wasn't going to answer, her small voice echoed through the room once again.

"I am now."

* * *

 _Ah, the calm before the storm..._

 _Thanks for reading!_


	29. Chapter 29

I woke up before Rin did.

Light filtered in through the thin curtains, casting our long shadows towards the door. The voices of the others sounded from downstairs; mere soft murmurs through the floor. Like always, I was the last one to wake up.

Well, kinda.

Rin laid on the pillow mere inches away from me, her eyes softly closed, her lips slightly parted, and her breathing steady. One hand rested limply on the pillow between us while the other remained weakly clutched onto my shirt. Strands of her hair fell gracefully onto the pillow around her, disturbed only by the slow rise and fall of her shoulders. Outside, birds were chirping.

I probably should have woken her up. But seeing her this peaceful and worry-free was too rare to interrupt. The others didn't need us right now, either. Skye probably wouldn't be open for another hour or so. We had time.

My decision didn't matter, anyway. Barely a minute after I opened to the scene, Rin did the same.

Her gaze was low at first. She furrowed her brow at the light entering the room, trying to blink away the sleep from her eyes. Then, with one final close and open of her eyes, she looked up at me. Our gazes met.

She widened her eyes a bit at our proximity as if she had forgotten I was there. Or forgotten she had switched rooms last night.

I expected her to shy away, like she did every time anything remotely intimate between us occurred. But she didn't. Her cheeks colored in with a small blush, but she held her stare. In fact, her blue eyes shone with an expression I had only seen once before; on the rooftops in Fairbanks. Expectant. Like she was waiting for something.

 _If I want to talk to her, I should do it now,_ I decided. _When she can't run away or change the subject._ But how do I ask her? How do I even begin to bring up the conversation Yuma and I exchanged those few nights ago? Should I start by asking what this… _thing_ between us was? Or should I jump right into the ' _Where are we gonna leave when we run away together?'_

My heart was starting to beat a little too quick again.

Maybe she's been wondering the same thing. Maybe one of the girls asked her about us, just like Yuma asked me. Maybe she wants to have this conversation just as much as I do.

The battle waging in my mind was at a complete contrast to Rin's gentle, quiet gaze.

Whatever I was going to say, I needed to say it now.

I took a deep breath. "Hey, Rin-"

I was cut off by the sound of a sudden uproar from the room downstairs. We both froze, hearing the sound of hectic movement, before a voice followed.

" _Rin! Len! Get your asses down here!"_

The moment was completely forgotten by Yuma's frantic voice echoing from the kitchen. Without a second thought, Rin and I jumped out of bed, sprinting out of the room and down the stairs. Neither of us cared enough to even change our clothes.

I had expected an attack or something with the ferocity of Yuma's scream, but we came downstairs to our four friends packing their bags swiftly and hastily.

Rin furrowed her brow. "What's going-"

"Luka just called Miku," Kanon explained to us without looking up from her duffle. "She landed at the airport here a couple minutes ago. And she's on her way to Skye. Right now."

My eyes widened. Next to me, Rin clenched her fists. "Are we gonna make it there in time?" She asked.

"Go pack your shit and change. We'll find out when we get there."

Rin didn't need to be asked twice. Without even glancing at me, she sprinted up the stairs. I hesitated before following her.

"Do…" I trailed off, looking around Flower, Yuma, Anon, and Kanon and wondering if any of them were actually listening to me. "Do you think we'll be coming back?" I asked no one in particular.

"Don't know. Pack everything. Just in case." Yuma shoved his laptop into his duffle. All four of them had already changed into their black outfits.

I nodded. With a furrowed brow, I turned back to the staircase. The door to Rin's room was shut. She was probably ready to go before I even got back to my room.

My thoughts were scattered between the hazy experience of waking up next to Rin and the panic of knowing our final goal was within reach at last. As I pulled my shirt over my head, replacing it with the familiar, tight uniform, I remembered the thoughts that had kept me up all night. Those fears of dying. _This is it. This is that reality._

I gulped. A pit had formed in my stomach. But, in no time, I managed to gather all of my things into my duffle and emerge from my room. It was spotless. As if I had never been there.

 _I might never see this place again,_ I thought. _I might never see_ any _place again._

No. Don't think about it. I couldn't think about it. I had been in deadly situations more times than I could count in the past few months. This was just another day on the job.

I closed the door to the empty room. Despite my reassurances, I wasn't convinced.

Just as I have expected, Rin was long gone by the time I descended the stairs. My heart was beating fast once again. But, this time, for a completely different reason.

"There you fucking are," Flower grumbled as I appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Like my room, the entire cottage was completely cleaned of all signs of us. Every chair was neatly tucked in, the counters scrubbed, the floors free of dusty footprints or marks. I felt like I was staring at a group of ghosts. It was like we were never there.

Rin gave me one last gentle look before hardening her expression for our mission. She pushed out of the front door first. We followed her.

The light nearly blinded me as we stepped outside into the heat.

"What's the plan?" Rin asked, leading us directly down the sidewalk towards Skye. In broad daylight, we definitely looked a little odd walking together. But, until we rose our masks, those second-glances from the civilians meant nothing.

Kanon walked in the middle of the group, tapping incessantly at her tablet. "There's a bathroom across from Miku's office. We'll hack into the cameras and set up shop in the women's bathroom."

"And if people try to come in?" Flower asked, clearly impatient. If it were up to her, we'd probably be sprinting through the sidewalks right now. But that would _definitely_ bring us too much attention.

"Simple. Lock the doors. We'll set up there and watch her phone for any sign of Luka. Once we see them, we move in."

Rin scowled. "A bathroom? Really?"

Kanon let out a frustrated sigh. "Can you think of anything better? If Luka left the airport when she said, she should be at Skye in less than fifteen minutes. What the fuck else are we supposed to-"

"Calm down, calm down." Anon goaded her sister out of her anger. "Look, the most important thing is that we all stay calm. Don't get all jumpy and mess something up that quick, okay? We can't mess this up. We won't."

We walked at a breakneck pace, almost jogging through the streets until we finally turned that last corner.

"Earpieces in," Kanon demanded. With a shaky hand, I pulled the small piece of plastic out of its pocket in my bag, slipping it into my ear. I was panting from our brisk walk across town.

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Rin asked disapprovingly. "You really think they'll just let us walk up there?"

Kanon frowned. "I… I don't know. Her guards don't show up often on her phone. I have no idea where she puts them."

"Fuck," Rin muttered under her breath. "They could be anywhere, then."

"What about the cameras?" I asked. "Do they have someone watching them like Meiko?"

Our tech-girl furrowed her brow. "I… I don't know. I don't think so."

Rin let out an unamused laugh. "Well _that_ helps."

"You know what, Rin-"

"Guys." Flower stopped us, raising a hand between the two of them. "Chill the fuck out." She paused us for a painfully long time before turning to resume our pace towards the building. We pushed past pedestrians without care, earning our fair share of angry shouts and foreign curses. "Kanon," Flower said. "Tell us what you know."

Kanon took a deep breath. "Most office buildings like Skye don't have a room dedicated to security. At least, they don't have someone posted just to watch the cameras. They just record. Our bags should do fine in scrambling the signal."

"What about the guards?" Anon asked.

"I don't know. We'll just have to hope we don't run into them. And if we do…"

"What floor is Miku's office on?" Rin asked her.

"The twenty-third. One from the top."

We had reached the building. Just like so many days before, we stopped in front of that restaurant, staring up at the top floor. Rin put her hands on her hips, examining the scene with a frown. "You really expect them to just let us walk right up-"

She cut herself off. I watched as her eyes slowly transferred from Skye to the building next to it. None of us had paid the building any attention in the weeks we had been here. Her expression twisted into a sly grin.

She slowly turned her head to look at us. "I think I have an idea." She addressed everyone, but her eyes focused on me.

Before I could snap my fingers, the six of us had entered the building neighboring Skye and were climbing the cement stairs with a newfound vigor. There was no one else climbing up the stairs. Everyone else seemed to have opted for the elevator. For us, unfortunately, the elevator wasn't an option. Too many witnesses. And too slow.

"Uh, Rin?" Yuma pointed out as we passed the fifth floor. He was the first to question her judgment. "I think we're in the wrong building."

"Shut up," she said without looking back. Keeping up with her insane pace, the six of us followed her up the stairs.

"If you haven't… seen... The guards…" she panted, her voice bouncing off the walls around us. "That… probably means… they're all… downstairs somewhere."

Kanon nodded. "Your point?" She choked out.

"We can get past… all of them… if we just go in… from the roof."

Then it dawned on me. This building was a floor or two taller than Skye. They were only a small width apart.

The gap between them would no doubt be jumpable.

"You're fucking crazy," I said aloud, a smile on my face.

She turned around to grin at me. "I know."

Yuma suddenly halted. We had reached the eleventh floor. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, leaning on the railing, his shoulders heaving. "You're not saying what I think you're saying."

Flower turned around, her eyes blazing. "Yuma. Move it."

With another deep breath, we resumed our climb. The others either hadn't realized what the plan was yet or didn't want to acknowledge it.

After the stairs adventure in China, reaching the top floor of this building was like a walk in the park. A bit of a strenuous walk, yes, but nothing like before. Rin seemed to share this feeling. The others, however, were dying.

"No more… stairs…" Anon gasped, her hands on her knees.

"We have one more," Rin choked out. She pushed the door open from the staircase. The top floor seemed to be a break room of some sort. To our luck, it was empty. _Guess not a lot of people take breaks this early,_ I thought. From the top of the building, the rising sun was even more visible on the river.

We trudged down the hall, stopping at the wall towards the end. The window took up the entire wall, floor to ceiling. A floor below us was the roof of Skye.

"This is it," Rin breathed out. She took a step back. "Back up," she instructed us.

We did.

Rin pulled her baton out of her bag. Without thinking twice, she swung it at the glass. My breath caught in my throat. _The shards are definitely going to-_

She hit it with a grunt and quickly jumped away to avoid being cut. The glass cracked severely but did not shatter. She jumped forward and hit it again. This time, the glass crumbled away noisily under her touch. Some shards fell onto the carpet before us while the majority flew out the window, tumbling dangerously down to the alley between the two buildings. Standing behind everyone, I peered over their shoulders to get a better look at our jump. My head spun.

Roof jumping one or two stories above the ground was nothing compared to jumping over twenty stories. Once the glass had fallen out of earshot, Rin turned, taking a few steps towards us.

"Remember to roll when you hit the roof." With that, she abruptly turned back around and sprinted back down the hallway.

 _It's too far,_ my panicked mind thought. _She's not going to make it. She can't-_

"Rin!" Yuma jumped forward as if to grab her. She was much too quick for him. " _Wait!"_

She ignored him. Without a second thought, she picked up speed, pumped her arms at her sides, and launched herself with one powerful leap out of the now-open window.

I ran forward, stopping at the window with a hand on either side of the wall. I was trembling in fear for her. I arrived at the broken glass just in time to see Rin land on the gravel roof with a roll. We had climbed a floor above it, giving us some extra space to make the jump.

And she had. And it wasn't even close. Rin sat on her knees, adrenaline surely coursing through her, breathing heavily with her back to me. For a terrifying moment, I thought she had injured herself. But she eventually rose to her feet. After a few more breaths she looked over her shoulder with a smile.

 _Fucking crazy,_ I repeated to myself, looking down at her with a growing smile as well.

And then I looked down.

I was standing right on the edge of a two-hundred and fifty foot drop to concrete. The alley dividing the two buildings was smaller than my pinkie finger. The people walking along the sidewalks below looked like ants. Smaller, even. My head spun with vertigo.

A hand yanked me back into the building. I couldn't even keep my balance in my dizzied state, so I fell to my knees uselessly.

"There's no fucking way!" Yuma yelled. He had been the one to pull me back. "She's lost her damn mind! First she wants to attack civilians and now she wants to jump off buildings!?" He was ranting to no one in particular. But all of us were listening.

I rose shakily to my feet. Sure, the jump was easy. But the fall was enough to send anyone into hysterics. The consequences were deadly.

"What if we just climbed the stairs up in Skye?" Yuma continued as I turned to face him. We had formed a circle as if we were a sports team giving a debrief at halftime. "We'd fucking _be_ there by now? I don't fucking get-"

His words were cut off as Kanon narrowed her eyes in determination and turned towards the window that stood about ten feet down the hall from us.

Yuma's eyes widened at the girl. "You're not actually thinking-"

"She could be pulling up right now, Yuma!" Kanon snapped without looking at him. She gripped the strap of her bag tightly. "She could be riding the elevator up! She could _be_ there! We don't have a choice. It's either this, or we miss our chance. Again."

Yuma's expression had changed from anger to desperation. "It's too dangerous."

"We've done worse."

Then, just like Rin, she took off. Leaving no time for hesitation or second thoughts, Kanon sprang from the window fearlessly, disappearing just as quick.

Yuma just watched helplessly.

Anon shook her head. "There's no way I'm letting her have all the fun without me." She took a step forward and sighed. "Flower. Count me down."

Flower furrowed her brow. "Are… are you sure?"

"Just do it." Anon wore a slight grin. _If you're about to make a deadly jump, might as well enjoy it,_ I figured. The same thoughts were probably running through her head as well.

Flower hesitated. "...Three…"

Anon shook out her shoulders and feet.

"Two…"

She adjusted her bag on her shoulder.

"One…"

She lowered herself into a running stance.

"Go!" Flower yelled, her voice lacking its usual power.

Anon took off. Closed the distance down the hall. Disappeared out the window. She was gone.

Then there were three.

"You can't fucking convince me," Yuma growled. "There's no way-"

Flower stared at the window intensely. Once she forced herself to break the eye contact, she punched him in the shoulder. "Don't be a bitch, Yuma."

And she followed the girls.

Yuma and I stood in silence as Flower jumped onto Skye. With our distance from the window, we couldn't see any of them land. But, by the lack of terrified screams, it was safe to assume all four of them had made it.

"Wow," I said, trying to think of the best way to convince Yuma to go after them. "We just got showed up by all four girls."

"Shut up," he muttered. "Y-You first."

I widened my eyes. "Is Yuma scared?"

"Fuck off."

I raised my chin proudly as I spoke. " _I've_ done this before. I think you should go first. I'll follow you up."

"You've done this before?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

I was caught off guard. _Oh. Right. That was supposed to be a secret._ "Well… we used to do some crazy shit in LA."

He obviously didn't believe me, but he didn't question me further. "I can't fucking believe-"

"Every minute you hesitate is another minute Luka has before-"

Whatever his weak spot was, I found it. I couldn't even finish the sentence before he let out a roar and sprinted towards the window. There was a second where I feared he would hesitate and jump too late or too early. But he didn't. With another yell, his voice containing some mixture of fear and determination, he jumped out of the window.

I wondered if anyone from the sidewalk was seeing this. Surely at least one person glanced up in the last few minutes, right? What would happen then? Would that give us away? Or would they just brush us off as some crazy kids with a deathwish?

Accustomed to hopeful thinking, I went with the latter.

But no more stalling. Now, it was my turn.

 _Don't hesitate. Just go._ It was all about the confidence. I wasn't sure at all about this jump, but faking it would be the key to making it. As the saying goes.

I clamped my eyes shut, once again consciously aware of the blood pumping through my veins, my heart beating in my chest, and the air filling my lungs. The proximity of death only makes you feel more alive.

I opened my eyes and dashed forward.

Besides, I couldn't keep Rin waiting any longer.

The bright blue sky was the first thing I saw as I jumped. Suspended in empty air over certain death, the world slowed. Anon, Kanon, Flower, Yuma, and Rin all stood on the roof, trembling but completely unharmed, clearing the spot where I would land. My arms swung wildly at my sides, my bag blew in the wind. The gap below me looked more like a painted picture than anything. A very terrifying, deadly picture.

I had been too concerned with Rin's safety while I was looking out the window to really appreciate the scene around me. We were in the tallest building for miles, which gave us the sight of everything the city had to offer. The river stretching along the south side of the city, the buildings themselves expanding underneath us like a spiderweb of streets and sidewalks. Even the distant green of the rainforest, hiding all kinds of secrets, stretched around the city. We were completely surrounded by the jungle. And the only way out was through it.

I was too engrossed in the scene. When I landed on the gravel, I forgot to roll.

Thankfully, I managed to bend my knees and keep them from snapping under me. I fell to the ground, involuntarily falling onto my back. I clamped my eyes shut, bracing myself for the inevitable pain of the landing to appear somewhere in my body. It surprised me when nothing happened.

My eyes blinked open to reveal five concerned faces staring down at me.

"Did you land wrong?" Rin asked, falling to her knees next to me. "Is your leg hurting again? Are you okay?"

I propped myself up with a grunt. My duffle dragged with my shoulder. "I'm fine. I'm fine," I insisted.

Kanon's concerned face warped into a grin that stretched ear-to-ear. "Then what the fuck are we waiting for!" She yelled with a smile. "Let's go bag us some criminals!"

* * *

 _Up next, Miku._

 _Poor, poor Miku._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	30. Chapter 30

"Flower. The sound adapters."

"Got it."

"Yuma, are the wires connected right? Her phone camera isn't on the screen yet."

"Working on it."

The bathroom was filled with whispers to keep our voices from bouncing off the tiles walls. Rin stood in front of the door, leaning against it and itching to cross the hall into the office only a few feet away. Miku was inside, unaware of our presence and awaiting her date with the target.

I stood away from Flower, Kanon, and Yuma, who were setting up their tablets and equipment on the counters. For the first time, Anon stood off to the side with me. She had decided to keep her supplies packed away in case we needed to make a quick escape. While they spoke, I focused on calming myself down. The adrenaline from the jump was wearing down quickly, but that was nothing compared to my fear of the upcoming mission.

"What time did she say she'd be here?" Flower asked softly.

Kanon shrugged. "She should be here any second."

"And if she tries to come in here?"

"Simple." Kanon paused her assembling. "We pull her in and take her out. Not hard."

Yuma let out a nervous laugh. He was strangely quiet since we landed on the roof. "Oh, no. The hard part is getting out alive."

"The only way out is down," Anon pointed out.

Kanon smirked. "Unless you want to go jump off roofs again."

Flower scowled at her. "This isn't the time for jokes!"

"Well how else am I supposed to deal with the fact that we're fucked if we get caught here?"

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe come up with a better plan than hiding in a _bathroom_!"

The bickering girls were silenced by a loud bang as Rin threw her bag on the ground between them. Like everyone else in the room, she was overcome with desperation and fear of the situation ahead. "If we need to run, we'll figure it out when we get there. No point in arguing over it now."

I wondered if the air had been this tense between them the first time they had tried to kill Luka. _Probably not. That plan was foolproof._ I let out a sigh. _Well. Almost._

Shooting Flower a glare, Kanon set her gear on the counter, careful not to let it drop into the sink. "Okay," she said, turning on the screen to reveal the camera from Miku's phone. "It's set up."

We all gathered around the tablet except for Rin, who continued to guard the door.

"What do we do now?" Anon asked.

Her sister let out a sigh. "Now, we wait."

And wait we did.

The screen showed the familiar sight of Miku's ceiling. She was absent from the picture most of the time, only occasionally revealing her teal hair as she rushed around the room. From the brief glimpses we saw of her face, it seemed obvious that she was wearing a huge grin. Her cheerful humming was audible from the tablet. As was the clinking of dishes, the pouring of water, and the ruffling of a tablecloth.

A few minutes later, Miku picked her phone up from her desk, allowing us a second-long glimpse of the dining table she had just set for two.

I furrowed my brow. She didn't even need to leave her room to set it up. She must have had the table, the dishes, the cloth, and everything else stocked away behind one of the many closet doors lining the room. How often did she and Luka meet in the office? Or, maybe the better question was, how many times did Miku _think_ they were meeting in the office?

Twenty minutes after they had set up their gear, I began to fear that we had been stood up once again.

But my fear was nothing compared to Miku's. She had seated herself in one of the two chairs she had set out for her date. Her phone now sat on the table in front of her. Resting her elbows daintily on the table, she folded her fingers in front of her face and waited.

Her humming had stopped.

"She's in town," Kanon whispered. It had now been thirty minutes. "She's close. She has to be coming. She has to be."

As the minutes ticked by, Miku's smile faltered more and more. Her hands dropped to the table, fingers drumming against the cloth.

Forty minutes.

Miku scratched the back of her head, now grabbing her phone often to check the time. Every time her oblivious eyes glanced down at the screen, they revealed more and more of her worry and confusion.

"This is ridiculous," Rin muttered from the door. The only upside to this situation was that the hallway between Miku's office and our hiding spot was empty of all people. Not a single person had passed by.

Anon pursed her lips. "What if… what if she doesn't show?"

Kanon shook her head. "Don't talk about it."

"But what if? What are we gonna do?"

"We'll talk about it when and if we get there," Flower said solemnly.

"But… shouldn't we talk about it-"

All seven of us - Miku included - jumped as her phone suddenly started ringing. Our eyes snapped back to the screen as Miku yanked her phone from the table and answered it desperately.

" _Hello?_ " She said with a voice full of hope. The camera went dark, her hair shadowing it from the light as she rose the phone to her ear.

" _Hey, Meeks."_ The voice of our target ran through. But it wasn't only her voice. In the background, music played and people talked and giggled.

" _Luka!"_ She exclaimed with excitement. " _Are you almost-"_

" _Yeah, about that. Quick change of plans. Turns out there's a little party at home. Can't miss it."_

The air around us changed dramatically with those few words. No one had said anything, no one had reacted in any dramatic way, but I could physically feel the mood shift from tense to furious.

For a few moments, Miku was speechless. " _But-But what about-"_

She was cut off by another low, female voice coming through Luka's end of the phone. " _Hold on,"_ Luka whispered. " _Not now, not now."_ She giggled.

The camera was dark, but not too dark to make the obvious shaking of Miku's hand invisible.

" _Hey, Meeks, I'll make it up to you, okay? I leave again in a few days. I'll try to stop by on the way out."_

The teal-haired girl didn't say a word.

" _You still there?_ " Luka asked, her voice more impatient than anything.

" _Yeah,"_ Miku answered. The defeat in her tone was heartbreaking. " _I'm always here."_

" _I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"_

" _Yup."_

Luka's tone changed just slightly. " _I love you."_ The words weren't convincing at all. She was telling Miku exactly what she wanted to hear.

Once again, Miku said nothing.

Luka sighed. " _Look, don't be mad, okay? I promise I'll make it up to you."_

" _Yeah."_

The confidence in her voice didn't waver, even though it was obvious she had upset Miku to a whole new level. " _Talk tomorrow."_

" _Bye."_ Miku didn't wait for her response, instead choosing to hang up the phone and slam it on the table.

Everyone was motionless in the bathroom.

"You have got to be fucking. Kidding. Me," Yuma growled.

Flower let out a frustrated yell, slamming her fist into the stall behind her. "We're _never_ gonna fucking find her!"

And uproar sounded in the room. Our entire squad had turned into a pack of lions fighting over the last scrap of food. Everyone was angry. Everyone yelled. They must have forgotten that we were still at risk of being caught.

Even Miku glowered with rage. No one but me caught the commotion that appeared on the camera. It flew to the ground, shattered glass following it. The camera cracked.

Only Rin kept quiet.

"Guys!" I yelled in fear that Miku, or even one of her guards, would hear us. "Do I have to fucking remind you all that this is still a _stealth_ mission?" I scolded through clenched teeth.

Flower stood so she was eye-level with me. "There's no fucking mission," she replied angrily, jabbing a finger into my sternum.

"But we're still behind enemy lines. We're still at risk. We can't find her if we're dead."

"We're not gonna be able to find her at all!" Kanon scowled. She was forcefully shoving her still-assembled gear into her bag, careless as to whether it would survive or not. The cracked screen of Miku's camera was completely ignored by her. "LA was our last fucking chance. And it was all fucked up because _you_ decided to come home a day early!"

I opened my mouth to reply, then said nothing. Her accusation was enough to make the room go quiet.

Yuma stood. "I can't fucking believe it. I jumped off of a roof for nothing."

"No, you didn't."

I had almost forgotten that Rin was still standing silently by the door. She crossed her arms, looking over the rest of us with narrowed eyes. Behind them, an ice blue fire of rage seemed to consume her entire being. Despite her silence, she seemed to be the most furious out of everyone. Except for Miku, maybe.

"It wasn't for nothing," she snarled. "I'm sick of waiting."

Before any of us could protest, she unlocked the door and exited into the hallway.

My expression changed from anger to concern in half a second. She was heading for Miku's office.

"Fuck, Rin, wait!" Yuma yelled, sharing my worry for the poor girl in the room next to us. He yanked his bag off the floor, ignoring the stray pieces of tech falling to the ground, and dashed through the door after her. I followed him.

We were too late.

Rin threw open the door to Miku's office, her pistol in hand. She marched inside and left the door open behind her. Yuma and I ran in after her, with Anon, Kanon, and Flower following us in a few seconds later. Anon was the last to enter. With a frown, she shut and locked the door behind her.

The office walls were completely lined with closet doors. One pair to the right was opened and empty, probably where Miku had kept her portable dining room. The same dining room which was now splayed across the floor, the table overturned in rage with a sea of glass shards separating us from the desk where Miku herself now sat. Her arms were crossed on the wooden surface, her face buried in them and her shoulders heaving in sobs. A brand-new, expensive-looking computer stood next to her. She only looked up when Anon shut the door. Her wide eyes were wet with tears, her cheeks red and her expression generally hopeless from her situation. She blinked at us a few times, her mouth slightly agape in a mixture of surprise and sadness.

"Wh-what-" she began, still choking over her own words. "Who… who are you-" She cut herself off once more as her eyes wavered on me. She recognized me. Her brow furrowed, her confusion only deepening.

None of us said anything. Rin stood at our lead, her gun still gripped firmly in her hand. She was the one who charged in here, she would have to be the one to talk to her.

But she said nothing.

Miku's eyes flickered to the gun. She didn't seem surprised at all to see it. As she stared at it, realization slowly tick over her. "My phone," she said, talking more to herself than us. "You… you grabbed my phone-" To my surprise, she let out a couple of nervous laughs. "Did you tap my phone? That's… embarrassing."

"You know why we're here," Rin finally stated.

Miku sniffled, leaning back in her chair. Her eyes remained low. "Yeah," she answered sadly. "I think I do."

"Where is she?" Rin asked.

Miku swiveled from side to side in her chair. "...What did she do to you?"

"I ask the questions, here," Rin growled in response. The blonde was so overcome with anger and determination that she was completely immune to Miku's depressing situation. "Where. Is. She."

Miku sighed. "West of here. In the jungle. About an hour in."

Her willingness to answer the question took all of us off guard. Rin included.

Flower was the first to snap out of her sympathy. She stepped forward, walking past Rin and planting herself directly to Miku's right. She leaned against the desk. "How do we know you aren't lying?" She asked, placing her hands on the desk and looming over the girl.

Miku still refused to meet anyone's eyes. Tears still streamed down her face. But they weren't out of fear. She wasn't scared of us at all.

"I doubt you'd be willing to betray your little girlfriend that easily," Flower continued in a threatening tone. "I don't believe you for a fucking second."

She said nothing. Her chair continued to swivel. She was acting like a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Like she was being scolded for something.

Flower let out an annoyed breath, placing a hand on the fabric of the chair. Miku froze. "I don't think you understand the situation you're in right now," Flower said slowly.

It baffled me how easily these two were able to threaten her while she was in this state. Maybe they thought this was all an act. Hell, maybe it _was_ all an act. But if it was, Miku was one damn good actor. Because she had me convinced.

"Talk, girl," Rin said. "Before we have to make you."

"Cut it out, you two!" Anon suddenly yelled, pushing past Rin. Flower's eyes widened as Anon placed her hands on the desk across from Miku. For the first time, the girl looked up at her. Anon met her eyes and began. "Luka wronged us. Just like she seems to be wronging you. We're here to put a stop to it. We need to know where she is."

Flower frowned. "You're too soft, Anon. This is why you stay back while the rest of us-"

Anon shot her a dirty look, cutting her off, then returned her soft eyes to Miku. "Just tell us what you know. And we'll leave. And you won't have to do this anymore."

Flower opened her mouth to protest. After a moment of hesitation, she thought better of it.

Miku placed her elbows on the table. The gears in her head were turning as she searched for words.

Rin seemed as unhappy with Anon's interference as Flower was. "Any day now," she muttered as Miku continued to think of the right words. Anon ignored her.

Finally, Miku buried her head in her hands, letting out a few more sobs before taking a deep breath to contain herself. "She… she wasn't always like this. She wasn't," she pleaded, her voice heavy with tears. "I knew her when we were kids. Middle school. She was so sweet. Quiet. Didn't like talking to people."

Rin rolled her eyes. I stepped next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and silently asking to at least listen to what Miku had to say.

"She was always broke," she continued, lowering her hands to reveal the fresh set of tears that had emerged from her eyes. "She started dealing in high school. I guess… I guess the money was worth the risk of getting caught. But she never did! No one could catch her. Even back then, she was always careful, covering up her tracks, framing other people, and just never getting caught." Miku paused, clenching her eyes shut and breathing heavily.

While the other may not have believed her words, there was a sincerity to them that I couldn't take as anything but the truth. We had only witnessed their relationship for the past few weeks. Miku had been apart of it for years. And it seemed like she had finally had enough.

"When-when she asked _me_ -" Miku opened her eyes slowly, still only able to form words between her sobs. "When she asked me to start helping her, I was totally against it. The shit these things do to people. To their families, I… I didn't want anything to do with it."

"And yet here you are," Rin frowned. I nudged her in the side.

Miku chuckled at the irony. "Yeah. Here I am."

"Why?" Anon asked. Her voice was gentle. She believed her story, too. "If you didn't want to do it, then why are you here?"

Miku slowly spun her chair around, looking out the window behind her. "...I loved her," she whimpered, hidden from our sight.

Flower spun her back around to face us.

Anon ignored her teammate's forceful movements. "And now?"

Miku furrowed her brow. "All that money. All that power. She's… she's changed."

"Changed?" Rin repeated, raising her voice. " _Changed_?!" She pushed Kanon out of the way, hitting the desk with a clenched fist. "She's always been like this. For years. No regard for other people, not giving a shit about anyone but herself. And you expect me to believe that you're not the exact same way?"

"Rin. Quit it," scolded Anon.

"Why? You guys are eating up all the bullshit she's feeding you, trying to make you feel bad for her. Like she isn't just as bad!"

Anon turned on her, pointing a finger at the pitiful girl sitting across from them. " _She_ didn't kill him, Rin! We're not here for her! We're here for Luka!"

"I bet she called her guards the second we came in here," Rin growled. "They're probably seconds away from bursting in that door and killing us all."

Flower crossed her arms. "And who's fault would that be?"

This time, Yuma spoke up. "Listen. We're not gonna get anything done if we can't trust each other!" He said, looking between the three girls.

"I don't believe her for a fucking second." Flower glared at Miku.

"Me neither," Rin agreed.

"You can at least give her a chance to talk," argued Anon.

"What's the point? It's all fake-"

"Shut. Up!" Yuma yelled once again. He pulled his laptop out of his bag, looking at Miku. "Listen. I don't know whether to trust you or not. But if you want us to believe you…" he trailed off, setting the computer on the desk and opening it. "We tracked you down through Meiko," he explained.

Miku blinked in surprise. "You… you're the ones who-"

"Yup," Rin placed her hands on her hips.

"Anyway," continued Yuma. "Her tech tracked where the deposits into her account came from. And this place sent her the most money." He typed away on his computer.

Miku nodded slowly.

"You have access to Luka's account." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I do," she answered with a flat voice.

Yuma slid the laptop around and pushed it towards Miku. "Send us all of her money."

Her eyes widened. "...All of it?"

"Every penny," he demanded. "And no tricks, either. Don't forget that you're in a room with six assassins."

She looked down at the computer, her eyes scanning the screen. Wiping the tears from her eyes one last time, she turned to the desktop in front of her and began working.

"Flower, watch her," Yuma ordered.

Flower nodded, peering over Miku's shoulder, observing her every movement.

As she worked, Yuma turned back to us. "I think she's telling the truth," he whispered.

"What? How could you-"

"Rin, listen," he continued. "We've heard how Luka treats her. Maybe she's finally fed up with it."

"Or maybe she's luring us straight in to kill us and protect her precious girlfriend. I won't trust her. I refuse."

"Do we have a choice?" I pointed out.

Neither of them had an answer for me.

"We don't," Kanon said softly, joining our circle. "We all agreed to go after Luka knowing full well that our chances of getting out alive were slim. We either go with this, or we go home."

"Guys," Flower interrupted our conversation. Her tone had changed dramatically. We turned to see her staring wide-eyed and the computer Miku continued to type on. The businesswoman herself glanced between the two computers often before hitting one last key and leaned back.

"There," she said. "It's done."

Yuma broke away from our circle to grab his laptop. He scrolled through it, his entire body tensing up.

Flower seemed just as stunned as him.

"Well?" Rin asked. "She give us away yet?"

Yuma didn't answer, instead closing the laptop and sliding it back into his bag. His attempts at keeping his composure were unsuccessful. "We," he began slowly. "Are the richest people in the world."

Miku leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. She looked far from pleased, but her composure had relaxed a bit. Tears still rolled down her cheeks occasionally.

Anon smiled. "So. Where is she now?"

Miku thought for a moment. "...Even if I gave you the coordinates, you'll never be able to get in."

"Is that a threat?" Flower asked with a sneer.

"No," she answered. "It's the truth. You need someone who knows the place. Where all the cameras are, the guards, the alarms. You'll never be able to get past it."

Rin narrowed her eyes. "What are you suggesting?"

"Take me with you."

The room fell into a stunned silence.

"No fucking way," Rin finally muttered. "The second we get there - if you even lead us to the right place - you're just gonna give us away-"

"What else are we gonna do with her?" I asked. "She's seen us. She knows we're looking for Luka. We can't leave her here. It's either we kill her or we take her with us." I glanced down at Rin. "And I think our odds are better with her."

She shook her head. "I can't fucking believe this."

Anon turned to face us. "She passed your little test. I vote we take her."

"Me too," Yuma said. His eyes were still clouded at disbelief of the number he had just read on the screen.

"No way," Rin growled.

"Flower?"

The girl, still standing behind the desk next to Miku, furrowed her brow. "It's… it's a lot of money. I don't think she could just give it up for nothing."

Rin's shoulders slumped. "Not you, too."

"We need to take her," Kanon said. The vote was now 5-1. Rin was outnumbered.

"Get up," Flower told Miku, her voice still holding that same hostility. "Try anything and we'll kill you."

"I won't," she promised. "It's gone on long enough."

"We're all gonna die," Rin muttered as we exited the office.

"Well," Kanon replied with a sigh. "We knew that from the beginning."

* * *

 _What do you guys think? Is Miku a friend or a foe?_

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	31. Chapter 31

_I keep forgetting to update this regularly, so I think I'm just gonna post the rest of the chapters in one day. Sorry again guys! I've been in a pretty sucky writing slump and I'm still trying to get over it. Thanks for being patient with me! :)_

* * *

With Miku guiding us, we were able to exit the building with only a few odd looks from the employees and security. No one questioned her about where she was going or when she would be back. Which was good for us. She most likely wasn't coming back.

When we got back to the cottage, they put her in one of the double bedrooms on the first floor. Flower insisting on sitting inside with her. The poor girl didn't resist, didn't argue, didn't say a single word as she entered the room and chose to lay down on one of the beds.

"What now?" Kanon asked as Flower sat on the floor in Miku's room. She left the door open.

"Let's, uh, take a quick breather. It's not even lunchtime and this whole thing just got _way_ more complicated. I want to sit down for a little," Yuma answered, ruffling a hand through his hair and watching Miku curl up on the bed. Her breathing was uneven. She was probably crying again.

It was understandable. There were many things to cry about in her situation.

Rin looked at the girl with nothing but disgust. "She's in our fucking house," she muttered to me. Kanon and Yuma each sat down on the couch while Anon set her bag on the counter and inspected it.

"Flower's watching her," I assured her. "We're fine."

"We won't be if she's bugged or being tracked. What if Luka finds out she's with us?"

Kanon had already taken precautions against that possibility, scanning Miku with her tech to find any sign of a microphone or camera. It came back clean.

I sighed. "I think you're being paranoid. Look, just chill out for a little bit. You wanted to finally get somewhere with this and we finally found a lead. Relax while you still can."

She didn't respond. Her eyes narrowed at Miku through the doorway. Her back was to us. "Fine," she finally said through gritted teeth. "I'm going back to bed."

I nodded. "There you go."

She hesitated, her anger fading as she turned away from the door.

I patted my stomach. "I'm starving. I gotta eat something."

That seemed to answer her unspoken question. With a softened expression, she turned away from me and ascended the stairs.

"So," Yuma said, sitting down at the head of the table and folding his arms. "Where do we start?"

Our little break had lasted longer than intended. The sun was setting outside, most of us had spent the day either sleeping, eating, or staring blankly at the TV. Now, we had all gathered in the dining room once again. Rin leaned against the wall nearby, her face soft and her eyes still heavy from the long nap she had taken. Everyone else, Miku included, sat at the table. It was time to plan.

"Do you have any paper?" Miku asked in a small voice. She had recovered a bit since we'd arrived home. But not completely. Her cheeks were still tinged red. "Let me draw out the base for you."

Yuma pulled a pen and paper from his bag and slid it across the table to her.

She took a deep breath, squeezing the pen in her hand, and began to draw.

"The whole base is a traditional Japanese-style house, basically. All the walls are made of wood or paper. It gets really hot in the rainforest, so she usually leaves the doors open."

We all listened intently. Whether she was telling the truth or not, we had no choice but to trust her.

Even in Rin's sleepy state, I could tell she was extremely put off by the girl speaking.

"Even though it's all traditional," Miku continued, still drawing a crudely-sketched map on the paper. "There are cameras everywhere. The security room is in the basement. There's no way we'll be able to sneak in without them seeing us."

"Why can't we just go in with you?" Kanon asked. "You seem to have some… authority in this little business of yours."

"L-she can't know I'm there," Miku stammered. "I'm supposed to be looking over the offices. If I show up, she'll know something is going on. And the only advantage we have over her at this point is the element of surprise."

"So we can't sneak in," Flower repeated. "We can't walk in. How do you expect us to get in at all?"

Miku circled a point on the map towards the back of the building. "This," she said, turning the paper towards Flower. "This is the kitchen. A delivery guy comes once a week to drop off food for the chefs."

"Chefs?" Anon let out a huff of amusement. "Secret, personal chefs. Wow."

Miku nodded. "The shipments come from the markets downtown. One of you has to take over the truck headed to her base, come pick us up, and then we'll all drive there together."

"And when we get there?" Kanon prodded.

"When we get there, the driver is going to be dressed like their normal delivery guy. They'll drop us off close to the base, drive up like normal, and begin unloading the food into the kitchen. There will be people there and they will see the driver. But they won't think twice about it as long as they're in uniform."

Yuma nodded. "And then?"

"Around lunch time, the entire kitchen staff will clear out to the dining room to serve the food. L...Luka will be there. The driver will let us in through the kitchen-"

"But you said there were cameras everywhere." Flower narrowed her eyes. "How are we supposed to get inside without seeing them?"

"I chose the kitchen," Miku explained patiently. "Because there are blind spots in there. The chefs always hang out and work in the blind spots so that the guys down in security don't tell Luka they're slacking off. We're going to have to take a very specific path, but we'll be able to get here without being spotted if we're careful."

"Where is _here_?" Anon leaned towards Miku to get a better look at her drawing.

Miku flipped the paper over and began drawing a more detailed version of the kitchen. "At this wall right here," she tapped an area of the kitchen near the exit. "There's a lever behind the counter right here. It's the end of Luka's emergency exit. The tunnel behind it goes straight to her living quarters. Into her bedroom. Once we're all inside, we're going to run through this tunnel and come out in her bedroom. The dining room, where she'll be sitting, is in the next room. You open the door, you… do your thing, and then we run out the same way we came in."

Yuma nodded. "When's the next delivery?"

"The truck is going to leave the market tomorrow morning."

A quiet moment passed as we all thought over the plan in detail.

"Sounds too easy," Rin finally said quietly.

Miku shrugged. "If everything goes by the plan, maybe it will-"

"You're fucking with us," Rin cut her off, crossing her arms. "I don't believe any of what you just said. Not a word."

Her shoulders slumped and her eyes lowered to her drawing.

"There's no way you just changed your mind like that. One day you're happily dealing all of your girlfriend's drugs, paying all of her customers, basically running her entire business for her and the next day you want her dead? No way-"

The entire table jumped as Miku suddenly balled her fists and slammed them on the table. Flower leaned forward with the reflexes of a cheetah and reached for the gun tucked in the waistband of her jeans.

"I'm sick and tired of being a puppet!" Miku screamed, rising from the table and glaring at the girl across the room. "She used to love me and now she's just using me! And I'm fucking sick of it, okay? I'd rather die than live another day lying to all those honest people trying to just make a living and support their families at Skye! _I'm sick of it!_ "

Rin's expression did not waver. But it was clear from her silence that Miku's outburst had taken her by surprise.

"I'd rather die-" Her voice choked again and she rose a hand to cover her mouth as she suppressed a sob. For a moment, I was sure she was going to disintegrate back into her hysterics, but she composed herself with a deep breath. "Whatever happens tomorrow, it'll all be over for me." Her voice was barely over a whisper. "Finally."

Rin frowned, her own eyes lowering to her feet.

"So who's our driver?" Flower asked, only then relaxing her reach for the gun.

"Len," Yuma answered right away.

I furrowed my brow. "What? Why me?"

"You're the only person she hasn't seen. She'll recognize any of us."

"B-but why would Luka be in the kitchen?"

Kanon shrugged. "She might be sitting outside when you drive up. She might be looking out the window when you park in the back. It has to be you."

I frowned. Being the new guy still sucked. "Okay."

"Another thing," Miku said, sitting back in her chair and avoiding our eyes. "We can't have any radios or trackers when we go in."

Kanon's eyes bulged. " _What?!_ How the hell are we supposed to-"

"She has sensors for that kind of stuff. Especially in the areas where people move in and out of the base from the city. We get anywhere near those sensors with any kind of tech, they'll go off and alert the whole base."

Kanon shook her head. "Fuck."

"When you go in," Miku looked towards me. "You'll have to leave the back door open. Once the dinner bell chimes, we'll move in and meet you at this wall."

I took a deep breath.

"We'll go over the whole plan again on the ride there," Flower suggested.

"Well," Yuma said. "Everyone start packing. We leave in the morning."

Flower stood. "You. Up."

Miku stood with her, walking back into her room like a prisoner. Flower followed her in.

"This is really it," Kanon stared thoughtfully at the table in front of her. "This is really the end."

Rin let out a laugh from the wall. "Hey, don't get your hopes up. That's what we thought last time."

It was a joke, and everyone but me laughed at it. I took a sudden interest in my shoes.

"I'm sorry," Kanon glanced up at me from across the table. "For what I said back there. It really… There was no way you could have-"

I held up a hand to silence her. "It's fine. I know I fucked it all up for you guys," I said with a light chuckle.

"And now you're going to fix it all," Rin added with a grin.

"If you say so."

"Come on," Yuma tapped his hands against the table and rose from his seat. "Let's get packing."

Like always, Rin and I were the first ones to finish packing. Also like always, she slipped out into the backyard when no one was looking. Except for me, of course.

After a few minutes of sitting on the stairs, watching with bored eyes as the others scrambled to gather their belongings, I decided to follow her.

It was almost ten pm. The sun had long since set, the bugs had retreated home for the night, the air had finally cooled to a comfortable temperature, and crickets were chirping relentlessly in the shrubbery surrounding our temporary backyard. Rin sat in her pajama shorts, the only one to have changed so far, with her legs submerged up to her knees in the pool water. She had given up on sitting near the Amazon.

"There any snails in there?" I asked, causing her to jump slightly as I sat next to her. Not wanting to get my uniform wet, I opted to cross my legs under me instead.

She ignored my question. "Three months ago I could hear you coming from a mile away and now you're sneaking up on me."

I shrugged. "Guess training did me well."

She let out a huff. "Too bad it's all over."

 _It's all over._ Well, it wasn't quite yet. But after tomorrow, whether we lived or died, it definitely would be. I pushed the thought out of my mind, asking the first thing that popped up to take its place. "Have you talked to Yuma about your new life yet?" As soon as the words left my mouth, my stomach dropped. _You idiot. Now you have to talk about it._

 _Now or never,_ I guess.

"Not yet," she answered with a sigh.

 _Just take a deep break. You act like you forgot how to talk to her._ "Why not?" I commended my voice for remaining steady.

She shifted uncomfortably. "I… I don't know where I want to go."

"You must have some idea," I said, leaning back with my hands planted in the grass for support.

She hesitated. "I guess. I was thinking somewhere in Europe."

I raised an eyebrow. "Europe, huh? What made you choose there?"

"I want to go to college," she said, looking away in embarrassment. "And we can't go back to the States. I feel like Europe will be the closest thing."

My heart had nearly stopped halfway through her reasoning. "We?" I asked quietly.

Her eyes widened like a deer in the headlights. Dropping her gaze to her lap, she joined her hands together and fiddled with them nervously.

Though the unease surrounding the events of the next day still lingered inside me, it felt like, at that moment, my biggest worry had been solved, and I was perfectly at ease. I shifted to face her, slipping my hand left hand into her right and intertwining our fingers together. She froze.

"Where in Europe?" I asked with a smile.

A small, nervous laugh left her lips. "Um…" It took her a second, but she finally found the courage to meet my eyes. "Definitely not London."

I chuckled. "Understandable."

"...Isn't there, like, a really fancy college in Europe, though?"

I shrugged. "There are a lot."

She furrowed her brow. "Maybe Yuma could help me find one."

"What kind of house do you want?"

The deeper into the conversation we went, the wider her smile grew. She never let go of my hand. "A big one."

"Mansion?"

"Maybe not _that_ big. And a dog. I want a dog. And maybe a cat, too."

"I'm allergic to cats," I advised her.

"Well, it's a good thing we'll have a big house so you two can avoid each other."

I chuckled. "I'll just spend my entire life running from the cat. Got it. What else do you want?"

"A _giant_ library."

"In the house?"

She nodded. "In the house. I want the same office Meiko had, but, like, five times the size."

"And you expect the cat to not rip up all your books?"

"Fuck off, Len. We're getting a cat whether you like it or not."

I held up my free hand defensively. "Okay, okay. Fine."

"I'll name the cat, you name the dog."

"Deal. What's the cat's name?"

She shrugged. "I'll have to see it first. It has to fit them. What kind of dog should we get?"

"I like big dogs," I admitted. "Never got to have them before."

"Can it be, like, _really_ fucking fluffy?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"So it can cuddle with me!" She reasoned. "Like… what're those big cloud dogs? The white ones?"

"Samoyeds?"

"Yes! That one. I want one of those."

"We're gonna have to vacuum every day to get its hair out of the carpet."

She waved a hand at me. "No, no. Hard floors. Duh."

I cast a glance over the water. Beyond the pool was the river itself. It flowed steadily past us, casting the dim light of the moon on its surface.

"I'm excited," I said.

"Me too."

A moment of silence passed as we watched the water flow.

"...but I'm scared, too," Rin said. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I… I don't want you to drive there."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't want you to go in there alone."

"I'll be fine," I assured her.

"This isn't even your fight," she said with a pained expression. "This is something that you just got dragged into out of nowhere. Something that you don't have any part in other than showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time. How can you be so… okay with this?"

The answer wasn't hard to find. "I'm with you guys now. Any problem of yours is a problem of mine."

She let out a deep breath as if releasing some tension built up in her. Her eyes lowered to our joined hands. "Len?"

"Yeah?" I couldn't bring myself to tear my gaze away from her eyes.

She furrowed her brow, refusing to look up from our hands. "When are you gonna kiss me?"

I blinked once, then twice as time seemed to stop. Rin breathed slowly and deeply, waiting for an answer and unable to meet my eyes while doing so.

Instead of responding with words, I rose my free hand to cup her cheek. My thumb brushed slowly over her soft skin. Even in the dark, the blush on her face was obvious.

My eyes fluttering shut, I pulled her in, and kissed her.

* * *

 _Jesus, Len. It's about time._

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	32. Chapter 32

The market was arguably the most crowded area of the entire city. While the majority of the indoors was made up of butchers chopping and distributing fish, the outdoors was a blur of trucks moving in and out of the facility. The fact that I had slept horribly the night before, even with Rin there next to me, didn't help.

Miku, Yuma, and the others waited for me down the street at our pick-up location. Rin had insisted on coming with me. The only person more on edge about me going undercover in this market was her.

We followed Miku's instructions, winding our way through the back streets around the noisy building with our heads held high. It was true, confidence really could get you anywhere.

The sun bore down on us relentlessly.

My eyes flickered across the lot to a truck labeled A422. I was almost surprised to see the big blue letters printed on the side, just like Miku said they would be. Rin froze in her tracks at the sight of the truck.

"Go back to the others," I told her. We stood on the side of the road, talking quietly as to not catch the attention of anyone around us. "I've got it from here."

"You're not actually gonna go in there, are you?" She asked quickly.

I furrowed my brow. "Do I have a choice?"

She pouted, knowing the answer was no and clearly displeased with this fact. "Just… just don't do anything stupid, okay?"

Her odd way of showing concern made me smile. "Get back to the others before someone sees you."

She looked up at me one last time with concern before hesitantly turning away from me and slowly returning back the way we came.

Officially alone, I took a deep breath and walked towards the truck.

The sun was especially bright today. I couldn't help but wonder if this would be my last day seeing it.

Walking past the truck, I entered the back of the building looking for any sign of the guy I would be replacing. I'd somehow have to convince him that he had the day off. Miku told me to use force if I needed to.

I really hope I didn't need to.

The halls were filled with people rushing about their job. None of them paid me a second look even though I stood out like a black sheep. She'd described the guy to me. Unfortunately, she'd done a horrible job, because every person who walked past me fit her description. I was already feeling hopeless.

But I had to keep going.

With my hands in my pockets and my eyes low, I walked through the maze of halls, trying to think of something, _anything_ , to do. If I just got in the truck without the white and blue uniform everyone was wearing, I'd be caught for sure. Maybe, if I just found an extra uniform…

I passed an open door, then stopped and did a double-take into the room. It was empty of people with a single wooden desk set on the dirty carpet. Lined along the walls were the familiar uniforms, hanging limply from hooks on the ceiling. On the desk was an open book. It looked like a driving log.

 _Bingo._

I entered the room quickly. Grabbing the pencil tied to the desk, I scanned the page for the truck's number. A420, A421, and then A422. There was a name scribbled next to it. _Dacio._ A Brazilian name if I've ever seen one. I erased it, instead writing down the name on my fake ID. Hopefully, that would do.

I kicked the door shut behind me, and grabbed one of the outfits.

I had only just exited the room and I was already sweating from wearing the baggy shirt over my black. It didn't help that I had to wear this stupid pinstripe hat, too. I felt, and looked, like a train conductor.

Now I just needed to get to the truck before the real guy.

A clock in the hall read 7:58.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't get lost for a few minutes in the maze. But, eventually, I found my way back to the parking lot. The truck was closed and loaded. Could I just… leave?

No one was looking, so I opened the door and crawled inside. At the scent of cigarettes smoke and fish, I froze.

For the first time, I was overcome with the inescapable urge to run. To get out of the truck, throw this stupid outfit in the parking lot, and run. Away from this city, away from this mission, away from Yuma, Kanon, Flower. Rin. Everyone. At that moment, I wanted to be anywhere else but here.

 _If I leave, this mission fails. If I leave, they won't be able to go off to their new lives. If I leave, Rin might never get to live in a normal house with a normal family and have a normal life._

I couldn't abandon them.

I put the truck in gear.

"Oliver?" A voice sounded from the open window, making me visibly jump in the seat. My eyes snapped to the man next to me, wearing the same outfit, a familiar book in his hand. The one I had changed.

"Y-yeah," I answered.

"ID," he demanded.

For a terrifying moment, I thought I had left my wallet in my bag with the others. But I eventually fished it out of my back pocket and showed it to him.

He looked it over and narrowed his eyes. "Never seen you here before," he said with a heavy accent.

"I'm new."

He hesitated in letting me go but eventually tore his questioning eyes from me. Guess he didn't get paid enough to care. "You're loaded up. Go." With a hard tap against the truck, he walked off.

I drove out of the parking lot with shaky hands. When the real driver came to grab his truck, he'd be very confused. Would he be able to alert Luka? Did he even know enough about to contact her, or even _want_ to contact her?

Hopefully, I didn't just set off an alarm.

The boxes of food in the back shifted as I slowly drove down the narrow streets. My squad was just at the city limits. My heart pounded, as it had since Rin left, as I scanned the streets for them.

I found them within ten minutes of leaving the market. It felt like ten hours to me. The clock read 8:13.

"Easy shit, huh Len?" Yuma joked as he entered the car first. "Ugh, it smells disgusting back here. They really send her rotting fish?"

Joking was his way of dealing with this life-threatening situation.

Miku entered behind him. Someone had given her one of our extra uniforms in an attempt to make her blend in with us. She shuffled uncomfortably. It didn't fit her well.

Anon and Kanon came next. Flower lugged my bag as well as hers, setting on the ground between the passenger's seat and mine. Finally, Rin pulled herself in, silently taking the seat next to me while everyone else piled in the back.

Miku leaned between us and stared out the windshield.

"Just take this road straight out," she instructed me. "I'll tell you where to turn."

I followed her instructions. Rin sat with her arms crossed, staring out the window with a stoic expression. Today was the day.

"Make one wrong move," Flower warned our guide. "And I _swear_ -"

"I won't, I won't," Miku insisted. "I promise."

It was hard driving through the streets with everyone talking behind me. Not to mention the crowds outside. Every few seconds I was forced to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting someone.

The sun bore down on me. I squinted my eyes to see in the blinding light.

"Rin," Yuma called from the back. While the two of us were seated comfortably in the front, Yuma, Kanon, and the others were cramped between wooden crates of smelly food. "What're you doing after this?"

To my knowledge, everyone's lives had been created except for Rin and I's. We exchanged a quick glance.

"England," she answered stiffly. "Cambridge."

"The city, or the college?"

"Both."

Yuma let out a laugh. "I can make up everything else, but you're going to have to be accepted there on your own. Good luck."

Rin didn't answer him.

The steering wheel was hot in my hands. My heart pounded. The crowds slowly became less and less dense until there were only one or two people walking down the street. On the outskirts of the city, the road was in much worse shape than the inner. Potholes were everywhere, cracks and holes as well. It spent most of my time swerving in and out of the right lane to avoid them. Every time I hit one, I received groans from the others. Followed by laughs.

I wasn't in the mood for laughing and I couldn't fathom how they could be so light-hearted. Rin shared my unease.

The buildings were slowly replaced with jungle. The few buildings that did remain were the same clay style as our temporary home had been, just in much worse shape. There were no people now. It was as if we had teleported to a ghost town.

Miku didn't tell me to turn anywhere. So I kept going straight. And of nowhere, the road ended in a cul-de-sac.

"What the hell is this?" Flower asked Miku as I pulled the van to a stop. Ahead of us was nothing but pure jungle.

"Keep going," she instructed.

"What? There's no road!" I yelled. My nerves were really beginning to get to me.

"Look closer. There are tire tracks going into the middle-"

"I don't see anything," Flower growled. " You set us up."

"No! I didn't! I swear! Just look! They cover it up every time they go through, but if you move some of that underbrush, you can see where they drive in! A couple feet in, there's another road. A dirt one. And it'll take us right there. Please just _try._ "

"I don't like this," Yuma admitted, clutching onto one of the boxes for balance.

"You really think Luka would have a house on a main road? Give her a chance," Anon argued.

Scanning the road ahead of me, I could barely make out a pair of tire tracks leading into the underbrush. But it was so subtle that I couldn't be sure if I'd seen it at all. If they really did use this as a road, they did a damn good job of covering it up.

"We don't have a choice," Rin stated blankly. "Go."

That was the last of the arguing.

With a deep breath, I slowly drove the car towards the jungle. It felt like we were driving into a solid wall.

Flower frowned. "People are bound to notice a car driving into the fucking jungle. It's not hidden at all."

"There are no people here." Miku looked out the windows as if to confirm the suspicion herself. She was right. There were no people on the sidewalks, no sign of life in any of the houses, no voices. It was as if we had entered another world altogether. A world with a mystical yet terrifying air surrounding it. I half-expected zombies to come rushing out around us.

The van bumped into the sidewalk gently, sending everyone in the back into the air. They grabbed onto to anything they could to stay upright. I ignored their cries of protest as the back wheels came up and the forest stood inches away from me.

 _Can't stop now,_ I figured, even though I desperately wanted to. The dense green of the trees grew closer and closer until we pushed through them. Branches and other underbrush crunched loudly beneath us.

A few seconds passed, filled with that same crunching of nature and the gentle _whir_ of the engine. There was another bump. In a panic, I stopped.

Ahead of us was a road.

We all saw it, leading directly into the untamed forest. But the only one who reacted was Miku, who sighed audibly in relief. This was it. The road that would take us to our final destination. The last mission. Whether of our careers, or our lives.

I gulped.

"Come on," Rin softly reminded me that I was behind the wheel and I had to get us down here. I gripped the wheel tightly in an attempt to still my shaking hands. It didn't work very well.

The light from the sun was completely blocked by the canopy above us.

There were no birds chirping. No animals howling. No sound at all in the woods around us. It reminded me of those horror movies I used to watch where the demons made all life abandon the area around it. If a house was haunted, it made no noise except for the occasional creak of footsteps made by a being who wasn't there. Cemeteries at night emitted the same eerie feeling of this abandoned wasteland. I remembered haunted forests that used to change and alter themselves and the minds of the people trapped within them so they could never leave.

Would this road be here when, _if_ , we came back to leave? Would we ever make it out of here, even if we succeeded in our mission?

Who were we really dealing with here? _What_ were we really dealing with here?

Someone who was perfectly okay with destroying people's lives around the world so they could live in this godforsaken forest in luxury and comfort. Someone who did not care that they were killing people's sons and daughters, people's mothers and fathers, people friends and loved ones. Someone who was willing to take full advantage of the trust given to them by their closest friend and use it to their full advantage. Someone dumb, or confident, enough to kill an assassin and expect to get away with it.

It felt like we were indeed on our way to kill a demon.

The leaves crunched below us.

"Right here," Miku suddenly pointed to a sign hung on one of the trees. I jumped at her movement. The sign was a yellow, metal plate hanging on one chain off of a tall tree. It dangled ominously, reading _Private Property - Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted_. The word _Prosecuted_ was crossed out. Over it was written the word _Shot_ in black sharpie.

"What about it?" Kanon asked, frowning at the sign.

"This is where Len needs to drop us off."

Fuck. I had completely forgotten that the first half of this mission was me going solo.

Rin opened her mouth to say something but closed it before any sound came out. I slowed the car to a stop. With only the engine echoing through the trees, I couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through me at the eerie stillness.

Everyone hesitated in getting out of the van. Even Miku. But she was the first to stand tall and pull open the side door. "We should probably whisper now," she said softly. "Who knows where the guards are patrolling today."

Flower narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were supposed to know."

"They change it all the time. Come on. Before we miss our chance."

I had wanted to trust Miku. Now, however, I was finding it especially hard. I couldn't imagine how driving through this hell by myself would help us.

Anon rolled her eyes when Miku jumped out alone. She followed her out.

"We don't have a choice," Rin pointed out. She slowly opened her door. "Let's go."

I gave her a pleading look, silently begging her not to leave me alone, but I knew it was futile. She had to go. I had to go in alone. I _had_ to.

She met my eyes with a sad look. Clearly, she was as unhappy with the idea as I was.

The others had already crowded outside the van before Rin finally pushed the door open and joined them.

"Remember," Miku said, appearing at my open window. "just unload everything like normal and open the back doors when the chefs disappear. We'll follow you in from there."

I nodded, silently cursing this girl for sending me to my almost-certain doom.

She tapped the truck once as she stepped back, signaling me to keep going. My friends stood behind her, each watching me intently. I wanted to say something, _anything,_ to them but was unable to form words. The realization hit me that I owed it to them to do this. Clearly, this was an important mission to them, and I had ruined the first attempt. And now I would be able to fix it.

I tore my eyes from them, easing on the gas and flinching a bit as the van continued forward.

The moment they disappeared from sight, it felt as if they had never been there at all. There was nothing but me, this van, and the horrors that hid in the jungle around me. The forest itself seemed to be mourning me already.

 _You've gone on missions before,_ I tried to tell myself. I dared not speak my thoughts aloud. The silence that surrounded me was ready to bare its teeth to anyone who was stupid enough to disturb it. _This should be nothing._ But it wasn't nothing. It wasn't the same as Chicago, China, or even Fairbanks.

Just when I concluded that the jungle had swallowed me whole, Luka's mansion appeared out of nowhere.

A little bit of hope was restored in me when I saw that it was exactly as Miku had described it. The entire structure was made up of dark wood and paper walls with red accents decorating them in elaborate patterns. The precise architecture was no-doubt produced by a professional, probably a billionaire because of this project alone. The structure rose and fell in floors, some parts easily four or five while others no more than one. I could only imagine the network that extended in the ground below. It was easily larger than Meiko's mansion. Traditional lanterns were dispersed throughout the grounds, most of them lit to keep the base bright in the cover of the canopy. The jungle continued flawlessly around the building as if the walls had been built around each and every tree. From above, the place was probably completely covered in trees. Without Miku's help, we never would have found this place.

I was so in awe of the massive building that I almost forgot I was operating a moving vehicle. After swerving a bit to avoid hitting one of the lanterns, I followed Miku's instructions and drove to the right side of the building. The road continued along. For the first time in hours, I saw people. They walked along the walls, patrolled the flat rooftops, looked out the windows. I was taken aback by their similarities. Clearly, Luka wished to eliminate any sort of identifying characteristics from them. Each one, male or female, had a perfectly-kept buzzcut. They all wore the same outfits as well; dark green pants with a matching top. To blend into the jungle, probably. And how could I forget the giant guns they had slung over their shoulders. I was completely unarmed. I felt naked without any means of defense.

Luka was somewhere inside this building. Right now.

"Fuck," I whispered.

The road led me near the back of the base, revealing a single indent in the building for a parking spot. At the end was an open garage-style door. Someone in a white outfit stood outside of it. Waiting. For me. In one of their hands, they held a book similar to the one I had seen at the store a few hours ago. A chef's hat was tucked under their arm.

Even they had a shaved head to match the rest.

I backed into the parking spot slowly, trembling under the inspective eyes of the chef. One wrong move and I'd be dead.

Once the truck was in place, I hadn't even turned the engine off before the chef was at my window, peering in suspiciously. I jumped as they spoke. "Who are you?" A low voice asked.

 _Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._ "I'm new," I answered.

He rested an arm on the door. "I didn't know we were supposed to get a new delivery boy," he said slowly.

My mind raced for a response. Taking this guy out would be no problem, but there were cameras watching me. And I had no way to contact my team. "That girl with the blue hair sent me. From the city."

To my great relief, I chose the right answer. The chef relaxed and backed away. "Get this shit inside. You're late." I noticed he had no accent.

I did as I was told, jumping out of the car and jogging to the back of the truck. If I kept moving, I'd be able to hide the quaking of my entire body. I was at the mouth of the wolf's den. And going in.

As I shuffled through the boxes in the back, I let my eyes wander to the forest around me. Somewhere in those woods was my only hope of surviving this. I wondered if they were in position already. Maybe they watched me pull up. Maybe they could see me now. Maybe Rin was resisting the urge to jump out of her spot and scream to grab my attention. I could hope, at least. This whole thing made me feel much better if I imagined someone was watching over me.

I lifted the first box, grunting at its weight, and staggered out of the truck and into Luka's kitchen.

It looked like one of those kitchens from the cooking shows. Everything was high tech, stainless steel, clean enough to confidently eat off the floor. The entire room screamed wealth at me. Several cooks, I counted six, plus the guy who greeted me, worked around the counters. One stirred soup in giant pots, one pulled sweet-smelling meat out of the ovens, one mixed, some cleaned. My first trip through, I tried my best to find the position of every person in the room. Eventually, they may become threats to me. And they all had knives. And they knew how to use them.

The freezer was in the back of the room. I pulled the door open, straining to carry this box in both hands at the same time. Figures these guys would all be assholes and refuse to even acknowledge me when I very obviously needed help opening the door.

The cold air hit me with a blast. I quickly scanned the freezer for any cameras and concluded that there were none. It didn't matter where I set the boxes, so I set the first one down in the very back and left to retrieve the next.

This continued for almost half an hour. I brought in boxes with no help from the enemy chefs and no sign of my team. Lunch had to be coming up soon. My shaking had not ceased. My heartbeat was all I could hear.

I grabbed another box out of the almost-empty truck. _What happens if I run out of boxes before they leave for lunch?_ I couldn't open the door until they were gone. And if I ran out of boxes, it would be too suspicious for me to hang around. Realizing I was running out of time, I slowed my actions. Slowly dragging the next box out, taking my time lugging it through the kitchen, sitting down in the freezer for a few seconds. _Come on,_ I mentally begged them to leave. _Come on._

As I pulled another box in, I noticed they had begun to load up the numerous display of food on serving carts. Good sign. They easily had enough food to feed a small town. How many people were actually sitting down with Luka for lunch? Or did she just have a large appetite?

Set the box down. Leave the kitchen. Grab another box. Go in the kitchen. Set it down. After several more slow cycles, I finally entered with another fifty-pound box in my arms to see everyone leaving through the doors opposite of my truck. My heart pounded. I'd set this last box down, run back out, make sure the garage door was open for the others, and wait.

I pushed myself into the freezer, setting the box on top of the pile I had formed at the end of the long room.

A door opened outside. There were footsteps. A single pair.

My shoulders slumped. They weren't all gone yet, it seemed.

In a span of three seconds, the footsteps grew closer to the door, which was suddenly thrown open.

"Ay, Dacio! What'd you bring for me tod-"

I turned towards the voice and froze. Standing at the end of the freezer was a terrifyingly familiar face.

I could never forget the face that sat on the other end of the scope pointed at Rin's head. I could never forget that voice that yelled at me when I intruded on his vantage point. I could never forget the guy who Meiko hired to kill us.

Standing across from me was the assassin from London.

* * *

 _Everything is finally coming together... maybe?_

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	33. Chapter 33

The two of us stood, unblinking, for a few long moments as we recognized each other in our confusion. This was him. The guy who had tried to kill Rin not too long ago. It was clearly his face, but his obnoxiously-colored hair had been hidden under his jacket last time. Bright green. How discreet.

Meiko had hired him. Once I thought about it, I realized it made perfect sense that she would hire an assassin from Luka.

Once Rin and I found the bunker in Kettlewell, all thoughts of this guy just vanished without a trace and I never thought about him again. I never thought I would see him again. But here he was, clearly working for Luka.

And he knew I was working with Rin.

He opened his mouth to yell, dashing for the door behind him. I was too quick. I hooked my arm around his neck, pulling him into a chokehold and dragging him back towards the other end of the freezer. His struggling was too much for me to handle. With a grunt, he elbowed me in the side, forcing me to recoil in pain and let him go. I pushed him towards the boxes I had just set down. Now, at least, he'd have to go through me to get to the door.

"How did you find this place?" He snarled. I tried to remember the extent of our interaction in London. It hadn't been much before he fled.

I didn't answer. I didn't need to. If this guy escaped, the entire base would be alerted.

He didn't wait long for my answer anyway. He grabbed the box nearest to him, throwing it in my direction. I dashed out of the way to avoid it and flinched at the deafening _bang_ that sounded once the wood shattered against the floor. Its contents spilled across the ground sloppily. My foe tried to dash after it to get to the door. With an easy swing of my arm, I Ianded a hard punch on the side of his head and stopped him dead in his tracks. I grabbed the back of his collar, throwing him towards the metal shelves forcefully.

With another heavy _thump,_ he hit his head against the metal, collapsing to the ground and falling still. He was still breathing.

When he woke up, we'd be fucked. But I didn't have time to finish him off. Someone was sure to have heard our scuffle.

 _Just gotta open the door. Just gotta open the door._ I wouldn't have time to wait for the others. I needed to move. Where, I had no idea.

Jogging to the closed door of the freezer, I pulled a couple heavy boxes in front of the door as I exited. The guy remained unmoving on the ground a few feet away. When I shut the door, I heard the pile fall against it, essentially locking it from the inside. Even when he woke up, he'd have to clear it before he could leave. I had bought us at least some time.

I jumped across the empty kitchen, my heart pounding at the sudden change of plans, and pulled the garage-like door open with all my strength. The others had to be in the woods somewhere. They had to be. They could see me. I wasn't alone. I wasn't.

There were three doors exiting the kitchen. I was too scared to use the secret entrance to Luka's room. The lever Miku spoke of was still invisible to me. That left two doors, one of which the chefs had exited through. I didn't know where either of them led to. But the back door was open, someone was bound to return to the kitchen soon, I couldn't escape outside. I needed to choose a door.

I chose the one on the left.

Walking through it felt like teleporting into Imperial Japan. The modern kitchen was left behind me and I had stepped onto a light wooden floor, surrounded by paper walls with wooden frames and cherry blossom trees painted across them. The floor was clearly laid out like a grid. There was a room to my left and to my right, each with another hallway on their other sides. This was definitely a place I could be getting lost in.

I had no choice but to go.

I jogged quickly down the halls, following its twists and turns as I tried to think of something to do. What was my main goal? To reunite with the others. What was the team's main goal? To kill Luka. I was skeptical of my skills when it came to handling the criminal mastermind myself, so I opted to search for the others.

But the one place I imagined they could be was in the kitchen. Or outside of it. But why hadn't they entered when I opened the door? Where were they?

My side ached from where that guy elbowed me. It cramped up as I jogged down hall after hall.

After centuries of this, I turned another corner and immediately dodged through a small gap between the sliding door into a side room. There were two guards at the end of the hall, the first guards I had seen since I left the kitchen. Luckily, they hadn't seen me.

The room I had slipped into was small, surely no larger than the average closet. It was dark, too.

I hadn't been in the room for two full seconds when I felt two small hands shove me against the opposite wall. My surprise prevented me from retaliating for the first few seconds. I had clearly intruded on someone else's closet.

 _What now?_ My exhausted mind couldn't help but sigh at the constant struggle to stay alive and unnoticed in this hostile environment. I didn't even question why a guard would be in a side closet before fighting back against my invisible assailant.

They were shorter than me. I held up my arms instinctively, blocking a few quick strikes to my face. While my body concentrated on defending myself, my mind listened as the voices of the two guards in the hall, a male and a female, grew louder. They were strolling in the direction of my hiding spot.

Without thinking, I pushed myself off of the wall and slammed a hand over my attacker's mouth. Soft hair tickled against my skin. Their attacks stopped and they tensed under me. Their fighting style was oddly familiar.

A moment of clarity came over me.

"Rin?" I whispered.

She remained tense for a moment and then finally relaxed. I kept my hand clamped over her mouth as the guards walked by.

"-sick of this heat. Even with these fucking paper walls it feels like I'm being boiled alive," the girl complained.

"At least we get to stay inside," the guy offered. "The guys patrolling the roads have probably all been eaten alive by bugs. Or jaguars."

"These stupid outfits don't help…"

The two of them turned a corner, their voices fading away. Only then did I lower my hand.

"What happened?" I asked her, still unable to see her face fully. There was a thin strip of light coming through the crack in the door. Her blue eyes were the only thing it illuminated.

She took a deep breath. "You scared the shit out of me," she admitted, not answering my question.

"Where is everyone? Why didn't you come in through the door?"

"It's a long story." She spoke quickly. "They had dogs. They caught our scent. We… we got split up."

My eyes widened in concern. "Where is everyone?"

"I don't know."

A huff of frustration escaped me. "Fuck. What… what do we do now?"

"I don't know." She hugged herself, holding her forearms in front of her.

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you okay?"

"...One of them bit me. It… kinda hurts."

 _Fuck._ "Which arm? Did Anon look at it-"

She flinched away from me when I tried to touch her arm. It was her left that was injured. "She didn't have time," she answered. "I hoped I could find something to clean it in here. But, so far, there's nothing."

"What about your bag? Where is it?"

"I dropped it when we ran. It was too heavy. They would have caught me."

This mission was over before it even started. How stupid were we to think that this could have been so easy? "Did you see where anyone went?"

She hesitated before answering. Her voice was soft and light, breathless. "I think they got Kanon and Yuma."

The sentence hung in the air.

"Like… like they killed-"

"Captured," she cut me off.

I let out a sigh. Of the two, that was at least better. "You guys didn't set off any alarms? The base seems fine."

"It was way out in the woods. Right after you dropped us off," she explained.

I was at a loss for words. The whole plan had gone to shit that quickly. "So… so we don't have much time before-"

"No, we don't."

My mind was such a mess of thoughts that I didn't know what to tell her. "What… what do we do now?"

She hesitated in answering. "...We need to finish the mission. We know where she is. We need to go after her."

"But what about the others? We can't just leave them!"

"We won't," she answered, a soft sigh escaping her and she adjusted her stance. I had a feeling she was in much worse shape than she was letting on. Until we left the darkness of this closet, I wouldn't be able to see. "The guards haven't brought them back, yet. We'll find them after the job is don-"

She cut herself off as another pair of footsteps echoed through the hall outside. We peered through the crack in the wall to see who we were up against. They slowly grew louder and louder until their source appeared with such suddenness that I jumped a bit in surprise.

It was the assassin. He stumbled down the hall in the direction I had come from, his head clearly spinning from our fight. He hadn't seen us.

In front of me, Rin turned from a living, breathing human being to a statue. She wasn't even breathing. It had caught in her throat.

In my haze, I had forgotten to tell her that he was here. It probably would have been good information. I dared not tell her now, when he was only a few feet away from us.

He paused, leaning against the wall opposite of us and breathing heavily. I couldn't stop the grin that formed on my face. I really kicked his ass.

Out of nowhere, Rin did something that I never would have imagined a professional killer to do. Moving for the first time in an eternity, she slid the door open and frantically jumped into the hall. I didn't even have time to protest, grab her, pull her back. With wide eyes, I retreated further into the darkness of the closet as Rin exposed herself.

My heart stopped as the assassin slowly turned his head to look at her. Those evil eyes, the same eyes that looked through the scope aimed straight at her head, widened in surprise to see her standing in front of him.

Come to think of it, Rin had never seen him on that mission. She just knew someone had tried to kill her. She didn't know who it was.

Because she seemed to recognize him from somewhere else.

"...Gumo?"

…

…

 _What?_

His shoulders heaved as he tried to catch his breath, looking over the girl standing in front of him. I was right about Rin. She clutched her arm to her chest, blood still dripping from the bite. Her clothes were covered in dark red, splattered with dirt and mud as well.

"What are you doing here?" He panted, staring at her with narrowed eyes. He didn't know I was still hidden in this closet. The way he glared at her made me want to attack; he watched her like someone would watch a rat that had invaded their home.

Rin, in her stunned position, did not notice. "We're… we're here to take out Luka. For _you,_ " she paused. "What… why are you here? I thought you were-"

"Dead?" He raised an eyebrow.

Rin's mouth moved like she was talking, but for a few seconds, no sound came out. "I-I… I saw her _shoot_ you… Did she take you hostage? We can take you home! We can-"

"We?" He pushed himself off the wall. A thin line of blood ran down the side of his face.

"Everyone is here. Everyone is here to avenge _you._ Wh-what happened? How did you-" She didn't even know what to ask.

And neither did I. If this really was the guy who Rin and the others had once been so close with, it was obvious he had a change of heart.

But Rin didn't know that.

He watched her, unresponding. I didn't know what to do. Jump out and attack him? Jump out and pull Rin away? With the oddity of this situation, I doubted she would go with any plan that involved fighting the assassin- Gumo.

But… but the whole reason we were here was him. The only thing between me and my new life, between Rin and her vision of a safe, happy home, was him. His death was the one thing that led us on this wild goose chase throughout the entire planet. To take revenge.

But he wasn't dead. He was standing right here.

Then what were we doing here?

"Where is everyone?" He asked, another flash of anger running through me. Now he has the nerve to talk about the others like he didn't betray them.

Even Rin seemed taken off guard by the question. Her mind was clearing. The same questions were running through her head. She was beginning to doubt him, and it was obvious.

"What really happened that night Luka attacked?" Rin asked. She took a step backward, away from him and towards my hiding spot.

 _I'm here,_ I mentally told her. _I'm here for your backup._

Gumo hesitated in his response.

Rin was uneased by his lack of an answer. "Gumo…"

Of all the things he could have done, he rolled his eyes. Like this was an inconvenience to him. "Why couldn't you guys just stay in your little bunker and mind your own business?"

I clenched my fusts, resisting the urge to emerge from the closet and punch him in the face.

"Because of _you_!" Rin yelled. "This is all because of you!"

"I didn't ask for you to do this."

"Because you were dead!"

He let out a laugh. "Well, obviously I wasn't."

She shook her head in disbelief. "But… but I _saw_ her-"

"You should know better than anyone that it's pretty easy to fake someone's death."

She blinked once, then twice. Her posture tensed. "You're working with her," she said with a low voice. "You went with her. Willingly."

His eyes widened in surprise. "I thought you would have figured that out after London."

To this, she had no response. The extent of his betrayal hit her like a bullet. A drop of blood fell from her fingertip onto the wooden floor.

Her head lowered. "...Why?"

He simply shrugged. "Do you know how much money Luka's making? She contacted me a few months before that night with the promise to promote me from a pointless little underground assassin to a bodyguard for the richest woman in the world." He let out a laugh. "Who could pass that up?"

"You gave us up for money? You gave... _me_ up, for money?"

 _They were… close_. It didn't seem like it here.

He at least had the sense to wipe the smile off his face. His eyes scanned her up and down. "...It was fun while it lasted."

Fucking asshole.

Rin said nothing for a few moments. Finally, she rose her head, her voice lowering in anger. Hatred dripped from her words. Her eyes narrowed. "We're getting out of here."

Gumo let out a sigh. "Sorry, Rin, but it's not gonna be that easy."

 _If he attacks her, I'll jump out._

He grabbed her injured arm. She winced a bit. To my surprise, she didn't resist. Instead, she continued to glare at him. He began to pull her down the hall.

Just as I was about to jump out after her, I hesitated. She wasn't fighting back for a reason. Plus, if she had needed me, she would have yelled for me. But she didn't.

Because Gumo was taking her to Luka.

Rin resumed talking, seemingly just for the purpose of hearing her own voice.

"Money was more important than me, huh?" She asked loudly. Their footsteps turned around the corner. Only then did I cautiously slip out of the closet, perring from side to side for any sign of hostiles.

Gumo responded, but I didn't hear what he said.

"You're disgusting," Rin answered. Her voice echoed down the hall.

I followed it in silence.

I don't think he answered.

"What happens to me now?" She asked. Hugging the wall, I reached the end and peered past the corner. The two of them had just turned to the right down the corridor.

I followed them, using Rin's loud voice as my guide for moments when I felt I had lost them. There were no other guards in the halls. I had a feeling Yuma and Kanon's search party had returned.

Which means we were caught.

 _Run,_ I urged myself. _Run._

 _Not without the others._ I was determined to get us out alive. Ever single one of us.

But my chances we're looking slim.

"No snide comments when we see Luka," Gumo warned.

Rin let out a laugh. "You've been away for too long. Acting like you never met me."

"You'll listen if you want to live," he threatened. They had wound through the halls for a few minutes before stopping in front if a grand set of double doors. The gates of Hell.

I hid around a corner, waiting.

"I'm so scared," Rin said in a flat voice.

"Get inside," he demanded through clenched teeth. He opened the doors and the disappeared inside.

With my back to the wall, I felt my shaking legs give out beneath me as I slid down to a sitting position. _Run._ Behind that door was the end. _Run._ Behind that door were my friends. _Run._

How could I save them? In my limited knowledge of the base, I knew of two entrances to the dining room. One was from Luka's bedroom, linking to the kitchen via an escape route. I was so lost in the base, I'd be wandering for hours if I went looking for it. The other was sitting right in front of me.

 _Run._

 _Go home._

 _Tell the police._

 _Find your friends._

 _Tell them you aren't dead._

 _Reconcile with your family._

 _Run._

With a deep breath, I pushed myself up. My legs shook so much I feared they would snap beneath my weight. I leaned against the wall for support.

 _Run._

I turned the corner, limping down the final corridor slowly.

 _Run._

The doors looked over me. They were the only solid doors I had seen apart from the kitchen. Gold dragons decorated their exterior.

 _If you go in there, you'll die._

I rested a hand on the door. _Rin wasn't scared,_ I tried to tell myself. _So why should I be?_

 _That's a lie._ And I knew it. _Rin's in there right now. And she's absolutely terrified._

I pushed the door open. It creaked as it swung open, just like the horror movies.

The picture it revealed looked just like a scene from one.

The walls were decorated in painted Japanese cherry blossom trees, intertwining across the wooden walls like a malevolent snake. It was occasionally interrupted by several tapestries hung on the wall, depicting classic art that ranged from scenes taken out of nature to elegantly clothes women and men. The entire room was lit with dozens of lanterns hanging from the ceiling, which stretched far above us in a mess of wooden beams and supports. Though we were only on the ground floor, the roof was tall enough for several more stories. Along with the lanterns, windows stretched above the ceiling allowed some light to enter. But most of the sunlight was obscured by the canopy outside.

The floor creaked below me as I stepped inside. Every face in the room turned to look at me.

A dining table stretched across the room. Half-eaten food I recognized from the kitchen was arranged neatly down the long table. The table was low. The chairs were nothing but pillows, one of which sat directly in front of me. On one side of the table, there were four more. On the other, another four. And straight across from me, the final.

On the right side of the table, Yuma and Kanon kneeled on the pillows, their heads bowed and their expressions terrified. Across from them were Rin and Gumo. Anon, Flower, and Miku were nowhere to be found.

Each one of my friends had a guard behind them, the barrel of their guns poking at the back of their head.

Directly across from me sat the evil Queen herself.

Luka sat with a gentle smile on her face, as if this were a get-together for a group of friends. Her elbows rested on the table, her delicate fingers interlacing in front of her.

"You must be Len." Her deep, melodic voice echoed through the room and sent shivers down my spine.

This was the end.

* * *

 _...Yay Luka? At least we finally get to meet her lol_

 _Thanks for reading :)_


	34. Chapter 34

My first impression of Luka was that she was batshit crazy.

She sat at the edge of the table, smiling at me with the cunningness and elegance of a cat. Her hair was arranged neatly, as if she had prepared for a meeting like this, flowing all the way down to the floor. She even wore a traditional, red kimono stitched with flowers and branches. From just one glance, it was obvious that it was very expensive.

"Please," she stretched a hand out to the empty seat in front of me. "Join us for dinner."

That was the last thing I wanted to do. But there was nowhere else to go. I sat down. My eyes flickered to Rin, who sat stiffly, her blank stare glued to the empty plate in front of her. Kanon and Yuma kept stealing glances at Gumo, who sat tall and proud. Of everyone at the table, only his and Luka's plates had food on them.

"I must say," Luka began, stirring the contents of a bowl in front of her with her spoon. "I was very surprised you were able to find me. I've been here almost ten years and not a single person has tracked me down. And after that embarrassment in California, well… I guess you could say I let my guard down." She smiled at me. "But I guess I have you to thank for that."

I said nothing.

"Oh, please," she scoffed, waving a hand in my direction. "There's no need to be so standoffish."

There was every need to be standoffish.

"And Meiko, too? Hah, I really have underestimated you."

She spoke directly to me, ignoring the others on the sides. I let my eyes wander to the guards. They each held rifles ready to fire, the end of the barrel mere inches from Rin, Yuma, and Kanon's head. _Fuck. I hope Anon and Flower are alright._ It occurred to me that Luka might not know Miku was here guiding us.

"Please," she said, extending her arm towards the plates across the table. "Help yourself."

"I'm not hungry," I said through clenched teeth. Gumo watched me smugly.

Luka rose an eyebrow. "No? You are aware how rude it is to-"

"I'm. Not. Hungry."

My three friends slowly turned their head to face me. Any sudden moves and they'd have a bullet in the back of their heads.

Her expression remained calm, but her hands signaled her impatience by falling to the table and drumming softly against the wood. "You're a to-the-point kind of guy. I respect that."

"Why are we here?" I leaned forward as I spoke.

"Well, I assume you're here to kill me-"

"No, why is _he_ here?" I nodded towards Gumo. A corner of his lips curled into a smile at the question.

Luka let out a sigh, like she was preparing to gently lecture a misbehaving child. "I guess you are owed an explanation as to why you've been dragged in to all of this." She paused and waited for me to respond. When I said nothing, she began.

"I was growing in power. More and more people around the world were hearing my name and becoming familiar with my business. And, therefore, more people were wanting me dead." She motioned towards the guards pointing guns at my team. "I had a bit of a scare a few years ago and I decided that these guards weren't enough. Around the same time, this little team was gaining popularity as well."

Rin was placed between Luka and Gumo. Her blank stare had contorted into annoyance, her eyes narrowing and a prominent frown forming.

"And I thought, how perfect would it be to have a trained killer as your personal guard? So I began to research all of your members. Let me tell you, it was _difficult_. You-" She leaned to her right, her attention falling on Yuma. "-Are fantastic at coding all of your information. I have to tell you. In fact, you were my second choice at contacting for this position. But, unfortunately, Gumo was a bit more skilled in combat."

Yuma lowered his head. No response.

"I considered Rin, but…" she shook her head at the girl next to her. "Too… unpredictable."

Rin's expression had warped into one of pure fury. "I would have _never_ -"

"Exactly," interrupted Luka. "Anyway, after I chose Gumo, I contacted him in secret asking if he wanted the new job opening. As you can obviously tell, he accepted."

"Rat," Kanon muttered, glaring at him. The guard behind her responded with a jab into the back of her head with the gun, reminding her that she was in no position to insult.

Yuma clenched his fists at his sides.

"So," Luka continued. "We agreed to fake his death so he could join me. It was never anything personal, I assure you."

Rin let out a loud laugh. "Of course it wasn't."

Gumo shot her a dirty look. Luka ignored her.

"I have to say, Len. You've really surprised me. Only a few months into training and you were able to pull that stunt off in China?"

"You know about the bombs?" I answered suspiciously.

She let out another smug laugh. "Know about it? I'm the one who planted them. Well, Gumo was."

Rin's eyes widened. "So it wasn't Meiko-"

The guard behind her nudged into the back of her head to shut her up. It took everything in my power not to hurdle myself over the table and punch him in the face.

Luka waved a hand. "Meiko could never come up with something like that." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Speaking of Meiko…" She waited for me to say something. I didn't. We both knew what had happened to her. There was no point in discussing it. "Another surprise," she said.

"All for them." I nodded towards the others.

"Hah, as if they ever did anything for you."

I frowned.

"Think about it, Len. They took you from your home, they probably threatened to kill you a few times, and now they're forcing you to take part in a feud that has absolutely nothing to do with you. Without them, you'd be at home right now, enjoying your young life. They've given you nothing. They've taken everything."

I wanted to yell at her, tell her she was completely wrong and that she understood nothing. But I couldn't. Because everything she had said was true. "Your point?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

At this, she smiled. "Come work with me."

I couldn't help it. I laughed.

"Don't be so quick to dismiss me," she waved a finger in my direction. "I can give it all back. You can go have your normal life again. As long as you help me out with a few… _issues_ here and there."

In a sudden outburst of rage, Rin slammed her hands loudly on the table, causing all of the expensive dishes to jump dramatically. She shoved herself to her feet, but didn't make it all the way. The guard behind her flipped the gun in his hands and jammed the butt of the rifle into the back of her head.

She fell back to her knees, panting. Her head hung low. But she was conscious.

Only after she had returned to the floor did I realize that I was standing. I had reflexively jumped to my feet.

Luka looked over the girl with disdain. Like she was a bug. Nothing but an inconvenience.

No one said anything for few moments. So, I decided to fill the silence with the words I had wanted to tell this woman since I'd heard of her existence.

My breathing was heavy as well. From anger. "Fuck. You." I spoke slowly.

Luka cocked her head to the side. "You're refusing?"

"I've seen how you treat people. How little disregard you have for anyone except yourself."

"Like who?" She asked as if she were genuinely curious. As if she didn't already know.

"You tore this team apart without even batting an eye. It's the reason we're here in the first place."

She watched me, silently urging me to continue. I tried to guess what was going on behind those plotting eyes.

"And Miku."

For the first time since I'd entered the room, she frowned. "What do you know about Miku?" She snarled after a few tense seconds.

Rin looked up at me. Her face was red with tears. She needed to see Anon ASAP.

But where was she?

"That you cared about her once but don't anymore. That you entertained her just enough so she'd stay. That you used her-"

"Not. Another. Word." Her eyes lowered in fury. Her hands rested on the table, clenched into fists.

It probably wasn't the best idea to get her angry. But I couldn't stop myself. "You were her entire life! She moved here for you, she took care of your business for you, she waited on and worshipped your every movement, all because she loved you! And what did you do in return?"

"You're entering dangerous territory, boy," she growled, standing from her seat.

"What did you do in return?" I repeated.

Those eyes glared at me.

I raised my voice in my best impression. " _Quick change of plans_ ," I mimicked, remembering the final phone call Miku received before our introduction.

"You were there!" She accused. "You went to Skye! That's how you found me, huh?"

"No."

I didn't even have to turn around to know that behind me, the door had opened. And, by the stunned expression that clouded Luka's anger, I knew that Miku had arrived.

She stepped up next to me. "They would have never found this place without me."

Luka froze like a deer in headlights. I would have smiled at her confusion, but Rin's head was still lowered in pain.

"M-Meeks... you...you led them here?"

She didn't answer. Her expression was pained, but determined.

"But...but why?''

Miku didn't tear her narrowed eyes away from the girl in front of her. "I think Len explained it well enough."

A few tense, silent moments passed. Then, out of nowhere, Luka let out a scream of frustration and swiped the dishes immediately in front of her onto the floor. The glass shattered against the ground, causing everyone in the room to flinch as soups, meats, and other assortments of food splattered against the ground.

 _"I'll kill you all!"_ She screamed at the top of her lungs. "You have no idea who you are messing with!"

Even the guards were surprised at her outburst. She yelled with such an authoritative fury that they watched her carefully, as if she were a bomb ready to detonate at any minute. They each took a step back from the table, looking back and forth between each other with uncertainty

Luka's temper tantrum did not finish there. "So help me God, you will all rot in this fucking forest! I'll make sure of it! Even if it _fucking kills me!"_

As if on a script, every occupant sitting at or near the table jumped back as one of the lanterns fell out of the sky and landed in the dead center of the wooden table. It erupted into flames immediately.

All eyes flew upward. Tucked in between the web of support beams was Flower. In her hand was a knife and dangling aimlessly next to her was the rope that once held the lantern. She smiled victoriously down at us.

"Don't worry," she called down to Luka. "It will."

The flames had already engulfed the entire table before us. One of the guards had dropped their gun beneath the table. Watching the flames spread across the room was enough to send them running past Miku and I. Kanon crawled away from the fire as it devoured the seat she'd been sitting in only moments before. Yuma helped pull her to her feet.

With her guard gone, Rin dashed for the rifle they had dropped before Gumo could grab it. She jumped to my side, aiming it straight at him.

He glared at her.

Luka's eyes widened at her fleeing guards. "Wh-what the hell are you doing?! _Get back here!"_

The final member of our team threw open a door to Luka's right. Anon stepped out, Rin's assembled rifle tucked into her shoulder.

"End of the line," she growled.

I don't think I've ever seen Anon shoot, or even hold, a gun. But I definitely didn't want to be at other end.

Luka knew she'd been caught. Even her trusted assassin couldn't help her now. He stood next to her, his expression just as terrified.

Flower jumped down next to Anon. Kanon and Yuma joined them. Rin, Miku, and I were seperated from them by the growing bonfire before us.

"Any last words?" Anon asked. To be honest, we didn't really have time for last more seconds and this fire would take us, too. But Anon was always the merciful one.

Luka's shoulders heaved in panic. She looked between us, frantically searching for a way out. There was none.

I could barely hear Anon's sigh over the crackle of the fire. "Your loss."

She pulled the trigger.

I realized too late that Miku was watching. She refused to look away as Luka took one last panicked look in our direction, or, more accurately, Miku's direction, looking for one last hope of survival. One last ally. One last friendly was none.

She fell to the ground, letting out her final breath before her head hit the floor. Her hair flowed after her, those evil eyes still open in terror.

And, just like that, it was over.

"What about him?" Kanon yelled, glaring in Gumo's direction before erupting into a coughing fit. The room was slowly filling with black smoke.

Flower was the first to answer. "Leave him. Rin! Len! Get out of here! We'll meet you outside!"

The four of them were lucky enough to be standing right in front of Luka's bedroom, where the emergency exit was. The rest of us weren't so lucky.

"Come on,"I told the girls next to me. "Let's get out of here."

Gumo yelled out from the wall across from us. "What? Wait! You can't just leave me here!" The desperation in his voice was pathetic. And, judging from the way the others rolled their eyes as they exited, I wasn't the only one who thought that.

Flower, Anon, Kanon, and Yuma disappeared into Luka's room.

"Watch us!" I yelled towards him.

"But-But - '' he frantically searched for words. "Rin!"

She tensed next to me. Her grip on the gun tightened.

"Rin, you can't just leave me here! Not after everything we went through! Not after-"

Without a single word, she raised the gun, aiming it straight for his head, and pulled the trigger before he even had time to protest.

Blood splattered against the wall behind him. His body collapsed backward.

"Fake that," she muttered as she lowered the gun.

I had to admit, the impulsiveness of her last kill startled me a bit. No chance to explain himself, apologize, beg for his life. Then again, if the gun had been in my hands, I'd probably have done the same.

That left Rin, Miku and myself. The air in the room was nearly unbreathable at this point.

I turned towards the door. "We need to go, _now_ ," I started. Rin followed me.

But Miku didn't.

"Miku?'' Rin questioned from the doorway. "Come on."

Her eyes were deadened, staring hopelessly across the room. Luka's body was mostly obstructed by the flames, but a few strands of pink hair could be seen flowing across the ground in certain places. "I think..." she trailed off. "I think I'm just gonna stay here."

Rin's mouth dropped open. "What the fuck are you talking about? You'll die-"

My eyes were burning. I placed a hand on her arm to quiet her. After everything Miku went through, I didn't blame her for wanting to stay. What was waiting for her out there in the real world? Prison. Death. Ridicule and shame from the entire world for assisting in ruining so many people's lives. On top of all this, there was no more Luka to protect her.

In my eyes, she'd redeemed herself. But to her, she'd done all these awful things only to top it all off by betraying the one she loved.

Rin watched her with a pained expression, hesitating a moment longer before disappearing through the door.

I looked over my shoulder one last time.

"Thanks, Miku."

Her back was to me. She merely nodded.

There was nothing more to be said. So, with a sigh, I followed Rin out into the hall.

We escaped the burning building together.

* * *

 _Miku really is the tragic hero in this story. I love her. So I killed her. Mwahaa._

 _Thanks for reading! :)_


	35. Chapter 35

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Yeah, I think so."

The school was just like any other high school. The neat, brick building stood tall in the middle of a upper-middle class neighborhood on the southernmost end of Florida. Birds chirped loudly in the trees. People strolled down the sidewalks with smiles, friends, excited pets, and an overall content mood. I was familiar with it all.

The first flight out of Manaus just happened to be to my home state. But we'd been laying low here for so long that Manaus was nothing but a distant memory.

But our actions were still going viral. After a devastating forest fire was finally contained in the Amazon, someone discovered the charred remains of Luka's home. At the same time, the drug world was thrown into chaos, since no one was in charge of managing or distributing anymore. The authorities had only just discovered the undercover mission of Skye. With Miku gone, all sorts of confusion had been raised there as well. The world had still not connected the dots between the events of Meiko's death, Skye's destruction, and the Amazon forest fire, and maybe they never would. But we didn't care. From our comfortable hotel room, we watched all of it unfold in the news. Even if they did discover everything, they would never know it was us that did it. This heroic act wasn't our aim. Only a positive side effect of our final contract. And we took pride in it.

Flower had already launched off to Kansas, which she preferred over her original choice of Texas. Her flight left two days ago.

Anon had left even sooner than that. Yuma's forged certificates had obviously impressed some doctors over in Norway, whom offered Anon a job right away. Not that, after our final mission, we needed jobs. Splitting up our money six ways would make us the six richest people alive. Jobs were just for show.

After teary goodbyes, she left the next day.

Kanon had left for Quebec that morning, with Yuma soon to follow. He was at the airport now.

That left Rin and I.

Before he'd left, he was able to give me some extra information on my family at my request. After all the effort he drove into developing Rin and I's lives so quickly after we escaped, I was surprised at his willingness to grant me one last favor.

But we had to hurry. Our flight to Cambridge was leaving in two hours.

Rin was hurriedly accepted to college there, while Yuma found me an animation company to work for. Not entirely my expertise, but I was excited. Once we landed in the new country, Rin and I's first step would be house hunting. The second step would be taking a trip to Kettlewell to clear out our base. Yuma arranged for our cut of the cash to be there, as well. We were going to need a big house to fit all those money bags.

"I don't think security is gonna like us creeping around like this," Rin warned. We walked along the sidewalk, hand in hand. Her bitten arm was long since cleaned, wrapped, and well on its way to healing.

"We're not gonna be here for very long," I assured her. "I promise."

She didn't say it, but it was obvious she was concerned someone would recognize me. I eased her worries a bit with my hat and sunglasses. After all, this was my high school.

But that wasn't why we were here.

Yuma, while doing his check up on my family, discovered that my little sister had made it out. She was off living with some other relatives in the state. She'd escaped the restraints of our controlling parents and was now living the normal, teenage life.

And she'd chosen my high school.

Was it the news of my death that motivated her to leave? Did she choose this school because of me? Did she ever think about me? Did she even remember me?

Unfortunately, I was unable to ask her any of these questions.

"Is that her?" Rin asked, pointing to a girl sitting on the steps in front of the entrance.

I shook my head. "Nope, not her."

"What about her?" She pointed to another blonde sitting among a large group of snickering teens.

"Nope."

"Her?''

I laughed. "You're just pointing out all the blondes."

"Well how am I supposed to know?" She said defensively. She pouted adorably. "What about her?" Her voice had lost most of its enthusiasm in her pout.

I followed her pointing finger, ready to dismiss another random girl. But, to my great surprise, sitting in the grass with two other girls, was Lily.

I hadn't expected to find her at all, let alone so quickly.

Her hair had grown so long. Mom never let her wear her hair down and last time I saw her, it was pulled into a neat bun behind her head. The stiff, tense expression she wore everyday at the dinner table was gone. In its place was a happy, relaxed smile. She chatted with her friends happily.

"That's her," I confirmed with a sigh.

Rin's pout changed to curiosity as she looked over the girl. "She seems to be doing good."

"Yeah,'' I agreed. "She is."

The palm trees swayed in the gentle breeze. The salty smell of the nearby ocean filled my senses. Fluffy clouds flowed through the clear blue sky, casting the occasional cool shadow on the ground below. I took a deep breath. It was a perfect day.

"Len," Rin tugged at my hand. "We should… probably go."

Lily laughed with one of the girls next to her. She was sitting far away, but the heartwarming sound was just audible.

"Yeah.'' I smiled down at her. No more missions, no more enemies, no more secrets. We'd never have to worry about whether or not we'd live to see the next day. I'd never have to kill another person, never have to watch Rin be attacked and hurt, never climb fifty floors of godforsaken stairs. In fact, with this year behind me, I didn't have to do much of anything anymore.

Except be happy with my girl.

I squeezed her hand. "Let's go catch this flight."

* * *

 _I felt a short, simple ending would suit this story best. I had another ending in mind that I may write and post as an alternate ending in The Collection short stories, but for now, this is it._

 _Wow, what a ride. It feels like I wrote this so long ago and I'm only just now posting it. I'm sorry again for the wait guys, I just started college and life has been crazy. But I am still planning future fics, and I have a TON of ideas. More than I can write. Anyway, if you guys have any requests or anything, let me know! Maybe it'll inspire me some more :)_

 _And, as always,_

 _Thanks for reading! Love you guys!_


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